Charleston Lack of Informed Consent Lawyer

When determining whether a particular course of medical treatment is in your best interest, you rely upon information given to you by your health care provider to help you make the correct decision. That information must include the nature of the treatment to be rendered, in as much detail as reasonable and comprehensible to a lay person, and all potential risks associated with electing or foregoing said treatment. In addition, if other options exist that the patient may consider preferable, he must, too, be made aware of those alternatives.

That information enables you to offer informed consent, which is required for a healthcare professional to perform any kind of procedure, with the exception that when a patient requires emergency life-saving treatment and cannot grant informed consent due to the illness or injury, a doctor will take the necessary actions to attempt to save the patient’s life.

Informed consent is also not required for non-treatment actions such as the use of a stethoscope or tongue depressor to make initial observations of demonstrable physical phenomena.

Proving Lack of Informed Consent

The issue of informed consent is a difficult one in courts, because it depends heavily upon intangible elements like thought and understanding, even when a written consent form is present. The Charleston lack of informed consent lawyers of the Steinberg Law Firm can help you to determine whether you may have a case.

If you were not properly informed of the details, or if a procedure was performed without your consent and you are now experiencing pain and suffering caused by that action, you may have been the victim of medical malpractice attributable to lack of informed consent. To prove this in a legal proceeding requires persuading the judge or jury that had you received all the relevant information, you would have chosen differently.

A Charleston Lack of Informed Consent Lawyer Can Help

If you received medical treatment for which you did not give informed consent, contact the Charleston lack of informed consent lawyers at the Steinberg Law Firm by calling 843-720-2800.