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In Queensland, the law accepts that medical practitioners may need to make difficult medical decisions under significant pressure. However, medical negligence is more than just a simple mistake in diagnosis or treatment provision. There are three general elements that need to be proven in a negligence claim.

Duty of Care
A medical practitioner such as a doctor has a duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and judgment in providing treatment to patients. This also includes examinations, diagnosing and providing information to their patients. Many consent forms specify an acknowledgement of the stated risks and complications that may arise from the provision of a given treatment or operation. However, this does not relieve the medical practitioner from their responsibility to provide reasonable care, skill and judgement.

Thus, to prove medical knowledge, a critical element that is required is evidence that the medical practitioner’s actions fell below the standard of care that is reasonably expected from a similar medical professional. In other words, if the medical practitioner’s actions are considered to be acceptable according to the opinion of a large number of respected medical practitioners in a similar field of practice, it may be difficult to prove the claim.

Causation
Another element to prove in a medical negligence claim is that the doctor’s performance caused the harmful result on a balance of probabilities. In other words, you need to establish to the courts that more likely than not, the doctor’s actions were responsible for the injuries that you sustained.  Read the rest of the entry...

Even though the holidays are over, it is still a season of sharing with the implementation of new rules in Queensland starting January 1, 2015 that give cyclists a little more freedom on the road. It is important that Queensland road users are aware of these new rules in order to avoid miscommunication and frustration between cyclists and motor vehicle users. A summary of these new road rules are as follows:  Read the rest of the entry...

WorkCover Queensland made an insightful report on the higher percentages of accident claims coming from young workers under 30, which amounts to 45% of all compensation claims in Queensland.  Read the rest of the entry...

Since the launch of the Worker Assist Mobile app for WorkCover Queensland in August 2014, over 2,500 injured Queensland workers have already been recorded as active users with 14,000 logins recorded across the board in just the month of October. Here are 3 very good reasons why you should use the Worker Assist Mobile App to help in your transition from injury to getting back in the workforce:  Read the rest of the entry...