Bearsville, NY Personal Injury Law Firms & Lawyers

Before answering your question about whether the offer is fair, it would be important to know whether your son will have a scar as a result of the spill.

Depending on the amount of your damages, you may consider filing a claim in Small Claims Court, District Court or Superior Court. You begin a lawsuit by filing a "Complaint" and properly serving the other party (use a qualified process server). You should be aware that the statute of limitations for an intentional tort is 2 years in Washington State (versus three years for a negligence-based tort), which means that you must settle or file your claim before the two year anniversary of the event or you will lose the legal right to recover for your injuries. Unfortunately, most insurance policies exclude coverage for intentional torts so whether or not you want to go through the hassle of obtaining a judgment will depend whether or not the wrongdoers have sufficient assets to cover a judgment.

In order to prove a medical malpractice case, a claimant must prove a failure to conform to accepted practice, resulting in an injury. A bad result is not enough. You will need to get copies of ALL of your son's medical records and have a doctor review them; if he/she is willing to testify that the hospital failed to conform to accepted practice, then you have a case. But even then, these cases are difficult and expensive to prove and they do not settle out of court. So unless there are substantial damages, it does not make financial sense to go forward even if malpractice was committed. As a preliminary matter, you can file a complaint with your state board of health. Before you file it, read it over a couple of times, then have someone read it out loud to you so that you know you have all your spelling and grammar correct. Make sure all of your statements are factual and not opinions, guesses or assumptions. Keep a copy of everything you send and politely follow up once every three weeks or so. These things take time, but they do take them seriously, so be patient. If the Board finds that the doctor's care was deficient, that will go a long way towards establishing a case.