Clients often ask Mr. Lin how long a medical malpractice lawsuit will take, and when they hear the real answer, they are more shocked.
OneWhat are the procedures for litigation in medical malpractice?
After the medical dispute patient submits the case filing materials, most courts will not directly file the case, but give a lawsuit number, complete the medical damage appraisal in the pre-litigation mediation stage, and organize both doctors and patients to cross-examine the evidence before the appraisal, cross-examine the appraisal materials, and then transfer them to the appraisal technology department or directly select the appraisal agency after the cross-examination, and the appraisal technology section will send the appraisal materials to the appraisal agency to entrust the appraisal after selecting the appraisal agency, if the appraisal agency accepts the case file after reviewing, it will send a letter to the court to notify the payment of the appraisal fee, and then send a letter to the court to inform the hearing time after the appraisal fee is collected, and then issue an appraisal opinion after the hearing, if the appraisal materials are incompleteThe court will notify both the doctor and the patient after receiving the appraisal opinion, and give an objection period, after which the case can be transferred to the case and the plaintiff can be notified to pay the litigation fee, and then arrange a trial and finally make a judgment.
2. How long does it take for each procedure?
Case filing link.
Although most cases of medical injury liability disputes are mediated before litigation, it is still similar to the case filing procedure, and the case filing division will assign it to the mediator or mediation judge after preliminary review, which seems simple, but it usually takes half a month to one month. That is, 15-30 days after submitting the case filing materials will be known to know who the presiding judge is.
Cross-examination.
After the case is assigned to the presiding judge or mediator, he will not immediately arrange for you to cross-examine, because he has a bunch of cases in his hands, and he will generally only arrange the first work for the next month or so, that is, when the cross-examination meeting will be held, depending on how many cases the presiding judge has in his hands, according to Mr. Lin's experience, the general case will be cross-examined 1-2 months after the case is assigned to the mediator or judge, and the doctor and patient will be issued a summons or notified of the cross-examination time in the first way before the cross-examination. The cross-examination process is completed in about 30-60 minutes, that is, the doctor and the patient check the identification materials and express their opinions.
Selection of appraisal agencies.
Most courts will not select an appraisal agency after cross-examination, and the appraisal technology section will also wait until the presiding judge transfers the case file to them before notifying the appraisal agency, and it will take about a month from the end of the cross-examination to the selection of the appraisal agency.
Identification link.
(1) Waiting for acceptance by the appraisal agency.
After the selection of the appraisal agency, the appraisal technology department will generally send the case file to the appraisal agency within a week, but it is difficult to say when the appraisal agency conducts the preliminary examination and decides to accept it, some appraisal agencies have to invite clinical experts to consult before deciding whether to accept, this time is long and short, basically in months, as short as 2-3 months, as long as more than a year (yes, it is really more than a year, especially the famous Fudan University Judicial Appraisal Center, as well as other famous medical schools under the name of the appraisal agency), but some appraisal institutions are more humane, first by the appraiser in the institution to review whether it can be accepted, which is relatively fastGenerally, a letter can be sent to the court about a month to decide whether to accept it. If the accreditation body does not accept it, the Appraisal Technology Section will transfer it to an alternative accreditation agency. Some courts are not "smart" enough to choose only one appraisal agency at a time, and after not accepting the case, they have to go to the court and choose another one.
(2) Wait for a hearing.
After the appraisal agency accepts the case, it will send a letter to the court, and at the same time notify the payment, and generally the hearing will be notified after the payment, but it is not immediately notified of the hearing, which is the same as the previous mention that the presiding judge should arrange the cross-examination meeting according to the number of cases in hand, and the undertaker forensic doctor should also decide the hearing time according to the number of cases in hand, which is as short as one month and as long as half a year. Hearings are usually held in person and last 1-2 hours. If the appraisal materials submitted are complete, the next step is to wait for the appraisal report, but if the appraisal materials are incomplete, the court must be notified to supplement, and the supplementary appraisal materials must be cross-examined by the court before they can be sent to the appraisal agency, which will consume a lot of time.
(3) Wait for the appraisal report.
Waiting for the appraisal report is the second longest period in the litigation process, Mr. Lin has not seen the medical damage appraisal that is reported in half a month, basically more than a month, more than three months, more than half a year, some appraisers do not procrastinate and do not write a report, Mr. Lin has waited for the longest appraisal report It took 2 years, and the appraiser's explanation is that the report is pressed under the table, and every time he urges it, it will be sent to the court next week.
Court trial time.
(1) After the opposition period, the case will be transferred to the case.
After the appraisal report comes out, the court will give 1-2 weeks for both parties to raise objections for the appraisal agency to reply, and submit an objection to the court to receive an objection reply, which is definitely required for one month. The next step is to transfer the case, a court with a little more humanity, the judge's assistant will directly transfer the case, and then notify the payment of litigation fees, but most courts require the plaintiff to transfer the case by himself, which is a waste of time and energy.
(2) ** Trial.
When to try again, and the same as the previous cross-examination, according to the number of cases in the hands of the judge, it is generally 1-2 months after the case is filed, and most of the time takes about 2 hours.
(3) Waiting for the verdict.
Waiting for the verdict is another long process, which is more painful for the parties, because the last uncertain result is delayed. According to Mr. Lin's experience, it takes about 2-3 months to receive the verdict after the last trial.
Second instance.
There will be a second instance in a considerable number of cases, because it is difficult to get both doctors and patients to accept the results of the first trial, especially if the amount of compensation is large, the hospital will appeal even if it is convinced, because it is afraid that the leader will criticize the work for not doing its best. There is generally no appraisal link in the second instance, after the appeal is transferred by the court of first instance, the court of second instance accepts the notice to pay the litigation fee and the scheduling date, and it generally takes 3-6 months from the first instance judgment to the second instance, and the second-instance judgment is relatively fast, and the second-instance judgment will be served in 1-3 months.
Enforcement of indemnity payments.
After the judgment comes into effect, it is common to go through the payment process with a hospital, about a week for a small hospital and 15-30 days for a large hospital.
3. How long will it take overall?
Since a lot of time is not strictly defined, it is impossible to accurately calculate how long it will takeYes, but as long as the case is not filed, the trial time limit will not be calculated, and there are many circumstances that can not be included in the trial time limit, such as the objection period and the appraisal link, even if the trial time limit is exceeded, many judges will ask the plaintiff to withdraw the lawsuit and file a new lawsuit, or transfer to ordinary procedures.
According to Mr. Lin's litigation experience, it is more common for the first instance to take one and a half years, and with the second instance, the litigation process in the early two years is relatively smooth.
Fourth, how to shorten the time spent on litigation?
Strictly speaking, there are not many techniques to save time in litigation, because most of the time is spent on scheduling and waiting for the outcome, which is not something that the plaintiff or the plaintiff's lawyer can control. However, in practice, a lawyer who is diligent in communicating with appraisers and judges will definitely make the case move forward as soon as possible, and at the same time, a lawyer who is familiar with the appraisal agency and the court can also make the case move forward faster through certain interpersonal relationships. As for the individual patient, it is very difficult to move forward with the case. Of course, experienced medical lawyers can reduce some unnecessary procedures in the litigation process, such as secondary cross-examination, re-selection of appraisal institutions, probability of inadmissibility, and so on.