Medical Malpractice
Hospital, physician, and provider negligence resulting in serious patient harm.
Medical malpractice can happen in any clinical setting: operating rooms, emergency departments, primary care offices, inpatient wards. The common thread is a deviation from the standard of care that causes preventable injury. Peter has over 15 years building and trying these cases, with more than $15M recovered.
Representative case types
- ▸Surgical errors and complications
- ▸Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
- ▸Birth injuries and obstetric negligence
- ▸Medication errors and adverse reactions
- ▸Emergency room negligence
- ▸Hospital-acquired infections
Medical Malpractice: common questions
Do I have a medical malpractice case?
- A bad outcome by itself is not malpractice. A case generally requires three things: a provider owed you a duty and breached the accepted standard of care, that breach caused your injury, and the injury produced real damages. Causation is usually the hardest of the three, because a defense will often argue the harm came from the underlying illness rather than the care. The only way to know is to have the records reviewed.
How long do I have to file a medical malpractice lawsuit in DC, Maryland, or Virginia?
- Less time than most people expect. Virginia generally allows two years from the date of injury — one of the shortest windows in the country. The District of Columbia generally allows three years. Maryland allows five years from the injury or three years from discovery, whichever comes first. Exceptions exist — for minors, and for injuries that could not reasonably have been discovered — but they are narrow, and once a deadline passes, the strength of the case no longer matters; no lawyer can revive it. Waiting is the most expensive mistake a potential claimant can make: records get harder to collect, memories fade, and the deadline analysis itself takes time. A free case review answers your specific deadline first — ask now, not when you're sure.
How much does it cost to hire a medical malpractice lawyer?
- Nothing up front. These cases are handled on a contingency fee, meaning the fee is a percentage of any recovery and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Case costs such as expert review are advanced by the firm.
Do I need a medical expert to bring a claim?
- In practice, yes. Maryland requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert, and the District of Columbia requires notice to the provider before filing. Even where no certificate is technically required, proving the standard of care realistically demands testimony from a physician in the same specialty as the defendant.
FTCA Claims
Federal Tort Claims Act cases against VA medical centers and federal healthcare facilities.
The Federal Tort Claims Act is a limited waiver of sovereign immunity that allows suit against the United States for the negligence of federal employees. FTCA cases have their own procedural rules: administrative claim presentment, no jury, statutory fee caps. Most personal injury firms won't take them. Peter has resolved several into seven figures, including a $1.5M sepsis case and a $900K prostate cancer case.
Representative case types
- ▸VA medical center negligence
- ▸Military treatment facility errors
- ▸Indian Health Service claims
- ▸Federally qualified health center malpractice
- ▸Government hospital diagnostic failures
- ▸Surgical and medication errors in federal facilities
FTCA Claims: common questions
Can I sue a VA hospital for medical malpractice?
- Yes, but not the way you would sue a private hospital. Care at a VA medical center is provided by federal employees, so a claim goes against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than against the doctor or hospital directly. That changes the procedure entirely: you must first present an administrative claim to the VA and give the agency a chance to resolve it before any lawsuit can be filed.
What is Standard Form 95 and do I have to file one?
- Standard Form 95 is the form used to present an administrative claim to a federal agency. Presenting the claim to the correct agency is a jurisdictional prerequisite — file suit without doing it first and the case is dismissed regardless of how strong the underlying facts are. The claim must state a specific dollar sum, and that sum generally caps what can later be recovered, which makes it a decision worth getting right the first time.
How long do I have to file an FTCA claim?
- This is the strictest deadline in this practice, and it starts earlier than people think. You have two years from when the claim accrues to present the administrative claim to the agency — and under the federal rule, the clock starts when you knew of the injury and its cause, not when you learned the care was negligent. That is narrower than most state discovery rules, so for many veterans the clock has been running for months before they suspect anything. If the agency denies the claim, you then have six months to file suit; silence for six months counts as a denial. These deadlines are not extended by ongoing treatment, and equitable exceptions are close to nonexistent in practice. If you suspect VA or federal care harmed you, the only safe assumption is that the clock started long ago — have the deadline checked now, for free, before the question answers itself.
Is there a jury in an FTCA case?
- No. FTCA cases are tried to a federal judge, not a jury, and punitive damages are not available. Damages are otherwise measured by the law of the state where the negligence occurred. The absence of a jury is one reason many personal injury firms decline these cases — and one reason experience with them matters.
Can active-duty servicemembers bring a claim?
- This is the hardest question in the area. The Feres doctrine has long barred active-duty servicemembers from suing under the FTCA for injuries incident to service. A separate Department of Defense administrative process now exists for certain military medical malpractice claims. Which path applies depends on your status at the time of treatment and where the care was delivered, so it is worth asking rather than assuming you have no recourse.
Why won't other firms take my VA malpractice case?
- FTCA cases carry their own procedural rules, statutory attorney fee caps, no jury, and an administrative stage that adds months before suit can even be filed. Many firms that handle state-court malpractice simply do not work in this system. That is precisely the gap this practice was built to cover.
Nursing Home Abuse & Negligence
Understaffing, neglect, pressure ulcers, and elder abuse across DC, MD, and VA.
Most nursing home injuries trace back to chronic understaffing. Too few aides for too many residents. Missed turns, missed meals, missed medications, falls no one saw. Peter created new Virginia precedent on understaffing claims and resolved a $500,000 Virginia nursing home case.
Representative case types
- ▸Understaffing and systemic neglect
- ▸Pressure ulcers and bedsores
- ▸Falls and unwitnessed injuries
- ▸Medication errors
- ▸Dehydration and malnutrition
- ▸Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
Nursing Home Abuse & Negligence: common questions
What counts as nursing home neglect?
- Neglect is the failure to provide care a resident needs and the facility agreed to provide: repositioning to prevent pressure ulcers, assistance with eating and hydration, fall precautions, medication on schedule, and prompt response to a call bell. It rarely looks like a single dramatic act. It usually looks like a pattern that traces back to too few staff for too many residents.
The facility says my parent's injury was an accident. Is that the end of it?
- No. Falls, bedsores, and unwitnessed injuries are frequently characterized as unavoidable accidents when the records show otherwise. Staffing logs, care plans, and charting often tell a different story than the incident report does — which is why obtaining the complete record matters before accepting an explanation.
Who can bring a nursing home claim?
- Generally the resident, or someone authorized to act for them such as a power of attorney, guardian, or the personal representative of an estate if the resident has died. If you are unsure whether you have standing, that is a question worth one phone call.
Are pressure ulcers always the result of neglect?
- Not always — some residents are genuinely at high risk regardless of care. But advanced pressure ulcers are widely treated as preventable with proper assessment and repositioning, and a facility that failed to assess risk, document a plan, or follow it will have difficulty explaining a stage three or four wound.
Birth Injuries
Preventable harm to mothers and newborns during labor and delivery.
Birth injury cases are among the most consequential in medical malpractice. A child with cerebral palsy, HIE, or a brachial plexus injury may need millions of dollars in lifetime care. Peter resolved a Washington, D.C. birth injury case for $6.5 million on behalf of an affected family.
Representative case types
- ▸Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- ▸Cerebral palsy from delayed delivery
- ▸Erb's palsy and brachial plexus injuries
- ▸Forceps and vacuum extraction injuries
- ▸Maternal hemorrhage and complications
- ▸Failure to perform timely C-section
Birth Injuries: common questions
What is HIE, and how is it connected to cerebral palsy?
- Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy is brain injury caused by insufficient oxygen or blood flow around the time of birth. When the deprivation is prolonged, it can produce permanent injury that is later diagnosed as cerebral palsy. The legal question is usually not whether HIE occurred but whether the fetal monitoring strip showed distress that should have prompted a faster delivery.
How long do I have to file a birth injury claim?
- Longer than most malpractice claims, in many cases. Because the injured party is a child, jurisdictions commonly extend the deadline beyond the ordinary limitation period — but the extension is not unlimited, and a parent's own claim for expenses may run on a shorter clock than the child's. Do not let the existence of an extension become a reason to wait; records and staff memories degrade.
My child was diagnosed years ago. Is it too late?
- Not necessarily, and this is the most common reason families never call. Birth injury deadlines for a minor are frequently measured differently than adult claims, so a diagnosis that is several years old may still be actionable. It costs nothing to have the timeline checked.
What are these cases actually worth?
- It depends almost entirely on the lifetime cost of care. A child requiring decades of therapy, equipment, home modification, and attendant care can have needs running into the millions, and a properly built case is supported by a life care plan and an economist rather than a guess. Prior results never guarantee a similar outcome.
Surgical Errors
Wrong-site surgery, retained instruments, anesthesia errors, and post-op complications.
Some surgical errors are classified as 'never events' because they should not happen with proper systems in place. Others involve subtler technique errors, or post-operative failures to recognize that something has gone wrong. These cases require an expert in the same surgical specialty as the defendant.
Representative case types
- ▸Wrong-site, wrong-side, or wrong-patient surgery
- ▸Retained instruments or sponges
- ▸Anesthesia dosage and monitoring errors
- ▸Post-operative complications
- ▸Surgical technique errors
- ▸Infection following surgery
Surgical Errors: common questions
Is a bad surgical outcome the same as malpractice?
- No. Every operation carries known risks, and a complication that was disclosed and properly managed is generally not malpractice. The question is whether the surgeon's technique fell below the standard of care, or whether a recognized complication went unrecognized and untreated for too long afterward.
What is a never event?
- A category of error considered so preventable that it should never occur in a system with proper safeguards: operating on the wrong site, the wrong side, or the wrong patient, or leaving an instrument or sponge inside a patient. These cases turn less on medical judgment and more on whether required checklists and counts were performed.
I signed a consent form. Does that end my claim?
- No. Consent covers the known risks of a properly performed procedure. It is not a waiver of the right to competent care, and it does not authorize a surgeon to operate on the wrong body part or to ignore a complication after the fact.
How do I know whether the anesthesia was handled correctly?
- Anesthesia records are detailed and time-stamped, which makes them unusually revealing. Dosing, oxygen saturation, and monitoring intervals are all recorded, so a review can often establish fairly quickly whether a problem was recognized and treated promptly.
Diagnostic Errors
Cancer misdiagnosis, missed sepsis, delayed treatment of heart attack and stroke.
Diagnostic errors affect an estimated 12 million Americans every year, and they cluster around the highest-stakes conditions: cancer, infections, and vascular events. Peter Anderson has resolved both a $900K FTCA prostate cancer misdiagnosis and a $1.5M FTCA sepsis case at VA medical centers.
Representative case types
- ▸Cancer misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
- ▸Heart attack and stroke misdiagnosis
- ▸Failure to diagnose sepsis
- ▸Radiology interpretation errors
- ▸Laboratory testing errors
- ▸Failure to follow up on abnormal results
Diagnostic Errors: common questions
Is a missed diagnosis automatically malpractice?
- No. Medicine involves uncertainty, and a reasonable physician can arrive at the wrong conclusion without falling below the standard of care. The claim arises when the available information — a symptom, a lab value, an image — should have prompted further workup that a reasonably careful provider would have ordered.
The delay was only a few months. Does that matter?
- Often, decisively. In cancer cases a delay that allows progression from an early stage to a later one can change both the treatment required and the survival odds, and that change is the injury. The analysis is about what the outcome would have been with timely diagnosis, not merely about the length of the delay.
What if my abnormal test result was never communicated to me?
- Failure to close the loop on an abnormal result is one of the most common and most provable diagnostic failures. The result exists in the record with a timestamp, so the question becomes who was responsible for acting on it and whether any system existed to ensure someone did.
Why is sepsis so frequently missed?
- Early sepsis resembles ordinary infection, and the window in which treatment is most effective is short. Because most hospitals have formal screening protocols keyed to vital signs and lab values, these cases often turn on whether the facility followed its own protocol.
Defective Medical Devices
Product liability claims involve device manufacturers, such as surgical robots, heart pumps, and implants, along with the malpractice that often comes with their use.
When a medical device fails, the issue typically isn't about a doctor's negligence; it's about the product itself. This can include a design flaw, a manufacturing issue, or a warning that never reached the patient. These claims are brought against the manufacturer under product liability law. They often accompany malpractice claims against providers or hospitals that continued using a recalled device or failed to inform the patient about a recall. The evidence in these cases generally comes from three sources: the medical records, device data, and the FDA recall timeline. Peter reviews all these together. One surprising detail is that Virginia's cap on medical malpractice damages only applies to malpractice claims, not to claims against manufacturers.
Representative case types
- ▸Surgical robot failures (Medtronic Mazor X)
- ▸Ventricular assist device failures (HeartWare HVAD)
- ▸Recalled hip, knee, and spinal implants
- ▸Surgical stapler and energy-device malfunctions
- ▸Failure to warn patients about known device issues
- ▸Ongoing use of recalled devices by hospitals
Defective Medical Devices: common questions
Is a defective medical device case the same as medical malpractice?
- No. Malpractice involves a provider failing to meet the standard of care. A device case focuses on the product itself—such as a design flaw, manufacturing issue, or warning failure—and is directed toward the manufacturer, often without any negligence from the surgeon. The two types of claims can coexist. A hospital that continued using a recalled device or a doctor who didn't inform a patient about a relevant recall can be independently liable alongside the manufacturer. This distinction is important for damages because Virginia's malpractice cap does not apply to product claims.
My device was recalled. Does that mean I automatically have a case?
- No, and the opposite is also true. A recall indicates that the manufacturer recognizes a known risk, but it does not prove your injury resulted from it. You must still prove that the defect caused your specific harm. Additionally, valid device cases can arise even if no formal recall was issued. A recall record provides strong evidence, especially if it documents a defect related to your injury, which is why the recall timeline is a key part of the review.
How do I find out whether my device was recalled?
- The FDA has a public recall database that you can search using the device name and manufacturer. For some devices, like the HeartWare HVAD, there is a specific recall-tracking page. The best approach is to bring any information you have, even just the surgery date and hospital, to a case review. Identifying the exact device and its recall history is part of the investigation. If the device is implanted, do not decide to remove it without consulting your doctors—making a legal claim does not require removing a device.
What if the device was implanted at a VA hospital?
- In this case, two tracks can run simultaneously. Product claims against the manufacturer can move forward in regular civil court, while claims concerning the medical care can be brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). This has its own two-year administrative deadline and requires a Standard Form 95. Peter handles FTCA cases nationwide, making this an ideal fit for the practice.
How long do I have to file a defective device claim?
- Less time than you think. Virginia generally allows two years; the District of Columbia and Maryland, three. And the clock may already be running: discovery rules often start it when you reasonably should have connected the device to the harm — in recall cases, that can mean the day the recall went public, not the day you were injured. Once the deadline passes, it does not matter how strong the case was; no lawyer can revive it. Waiting is the most expensive mistake a potential claimant can make. Evidence works the same way — device logs, maintenance records, and software-version history start disappearing long before any deadline hits. The case review is free, and the first thing it answers is exactly how much time you have left. Ask now, while the answer can still help you.