Everybody knows that there are statutes of limitations which apply to every type of lawsuit. The statute of limitations for an automobile accident is three years from the date of the accident. The statute of limitations for assault is one year from the date of the assault. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice is two and a half years from the date of the malpractice.

If you have been in a car accident, you know it. If you've been assaulted, you know it. However, you don't always know if or when you have been the victim of medical malpractice.

Let's say that you start have headaches. You go to the doctor, and s/he tries various medications, advises you regarding various lifestyle changes (reduce stress, avoid caffeine, avoid certain foods, etc.). This goes on for three years. The headaches gradually become more frequent, and more severe. Your doctor tries various medications. You try various lifestyle changes. Finally, three years or so after your first complaint to your doctor, you go to another doctor or to a hospital emergency room. They send you for a CT scan or MRI. Now you find out that you have a brain tumor. By this time, the brain tumor is inoperable and untreatable. Three years ago it would have been a simple surgery. Although you just learned about the brain tumor, you are beyond the two and half year statute of limitations for medical malpractice.

This is where the "Continuous Treatment Doctrine" comes to your rescue. In essence, the "Continuous Treatment Doctrine" says that where a doctor has continuously treated you for the same illness, injury or condition, the statute of limitations does not start to run until that course of treatment ends.

Now you may be thinking "was there continuous treatment if the doctor didn't even know I had a brain tumor?" The answer is yes. Just because a doctor does not correctly diagnose a persons condition, that is not a basis to find that s/he was not treating the patient for it; if the symptoms the doctor was treating were symptoms of the condition s/he failed to diagnose (such as the brain tumor in my example).

Although the example I have given seems clear, the application of the "Continuous Treatment Doctrine" is very complicated. That is because no two cases are exactly the same. Depending on changes in patient's condition, or how much time passes between visits to the doctor, the continuous treatment doctrine may not apply. If there are visits to other doctors in the interim, there may not be "continuous treatment" with the doctor you wish to sue. This is all part of the investigation, evaluation, and assessment we at BrownChiari do in every medical malpractice claim we handle. Knowing how to analyze a doctor's medical records, and what questions to ask the doctor, can make the difference between whether a claim is successful or whether the claim is dismissed because of a statute of limitations defense. Knowing what to look for, and what to ask, takes years of experience. Keeping up with the constant changes in the law, and in the way the law is applied by different courts, can also make the difference between success or failure in a medical malpractice case. Our attorneys have handled thousands of medical malpractice claims, and are constantly reviewing changes in the law, and reviewing decisions applicable to medical malpractice cases by all the courts in the areas where we practice.