Queens Medical Malpractice Lawyers

A Queens Malpractice Case Starts With Who Runs the Hospital

A Queens medical malpractice claim holds a doctor, nurse, or hospital responsible when care fell below accepted practice and caused you harm.

If that care happened at Elmhurst Hospital or Queens Hospital Center, both run by NYC Health + Hospitals, a sworn notice of claim is due within 90 days.

At NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, Jamaica Hospital, Mount Sinai Queens, or LIJ Forest Hills, the deadline to sue is generally two and a half years.

New York places no cap on what a jury can award for a malpractice injury.

Before a case can be filed, a physician has to review it, so the work starts with getting the complete chart.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review of the care you or your family received. You Win or It's Free.

Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Center Run on a Shorter Clock

Two of the borough's largest hospitals belong to the City's public hospital system, and a claim against either one starts with a sworn notice of intention within 90 days and a lawsuit within one year and 90 days.^[1] The private hospitals around them carry the ordinary malpractice deadline. Nothing on the wristband or the discharge papers says which kind of hospital you were in.

The serving matters as much as the date. In a 2014 Brooklyn case, a notice filed only with the City Comptroller was held not to be service on Health + Hospitals, and the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice.^[2] The public corporation that runs Elmhurst is a separate defendant from the City, and it can demand a sworn examination under General Municipal Law § 50-h before you sue. Our page on a malpractice claim against a city hospital covers the notice itself, and the hearing that follows has its own page on what the examiner can ask.

Ambulances make this question common. The State Health Department lists three adult Level I trauma centers in Queens: Elmhurst, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, and Jamaica Hospital.^[3] A crash on Queens Boulevard can land a patient in a public hospital or a private one depending on where the ambulance turned.

A family that learns who runs the hospital in month four has usually lost the public claim, while one that learns it in week two still has it.

The Emergency, Surgical, and Delivery-Room Errors Behind Malpractice Claims

Malpractice is care a reasonably careful provider would not have given, and it has to have caused the harm. These are the patterns that most often meet that test.

A Heart Attack, Stroke, or Sepsis Sent Home From the Emergency Room

Busy emergency departments miss time-critical diagnoses when the workup stops early: no troponin repeat, no stroke scale, no lactate. The record of the visit usually shows what was ordered and what was not, which is the subject of our page on emergencies that were missed in a New York ER.

A Cancer Found a Stage Too Late

A suspicious scan that never became a referral, or a lump read as benign without a biopsy, can move a cancer from curable to not. Lavern's Law starts the clock when the patient learned of the error, which keeps many of these claims alive years later, as our page on delayed cancer diagnosis in New York explains.

Surgical Errors and Objects Left Behind

Wrong-site procedures, nicked organs, and a sponge or instrument left inside are the clearest surgical claims. A retained object has its own one-year deadline that runs from discovery.

Birth Injuries in the Delivery Room

Oxygen deprivation during labor, a delayed cesarean, and shoulder dystocia handled with too much force can cause lifelong injuries. A child's malpractice claim is extended during childhood but cannot run past ten years from the delivery, and future care for a qualifying birth injury can be paid through the Medical Indemnity Fund.

Medication, Anesthesia, and Consent

Wrong drugs and doses, missed allergies, and anesthesia errors make up many of the rest. A complication you were never warned about can be a claim of its own, covered on our page about informed consent claims in New York.

Every Queens patient deserves the same standard of medical care, regardless of the language they speak. When a consent form or discharge instruction was explained in English and it leads to a misdiagnosis, improper treatment, or preventable injury, the hospital may be liable for medical malpractice. A language barrier does not excuse substandard medical care.

The Physician Review CPLR 3012-a Requires Before We File

A New York malpractice complaint has to come with a lawyer's certificate that a physician reviewed the facts and that there is a reasonable basis for the case.^[4] The reviewing physician can be licensed in New York or any other state, and that doctor's name is not disclosed to the defense.

• Deadline pressure. When the statute of limitations is about to run, the case can be filed first and the certificate served within 90 days after the complaint.
• Records the hospital has not produced. If the defendants have not turned over requested records, the certificate is not due until 90 days after they do.
• Three refusals. A lawyer who made good-faith attempts with three physicians and found none willing to consult can certify that instead.

The chart comes first. Public Health Law § 18 gives a patient the right to inspect records within 10 days of a written request and caps paper copies at 75 cents a page, and a provider cannot refuse because you cannot pay.^[5] The State's physician profile site lists malpractice judgments and arbitration awards against a doctor from the last ten years.

We request the complete chart, nursing notes and imaging included, and the firm carries the cost of the physician review. For you, that means a straight answer on whether the care fell short before anyone files anything, and a case that is ready for the defense experts when they arrive. Our national page on certificate-of-merit rules in other states compares the New York requirement with the rest of the country.

What Is a Queens Medical Malpractice Case Worth Without Caps?

The value comes from the injury and its future, and New York law does not cap any part of it. A malpractice recovery can include:

• Past and future medical care, including surgery, therapy, home care, and equipment
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity when the injury ends or shortens a career
• Pain and suffering, past and future, with no ceiling
• A family's losses in a death case, measured by New York's pecuniary-loss rule, plus the patient's own conscious suffering before death

Large future awards are paid partly over time. Under CPLR Article 50-A, future pain and suffering of $500,000 or less is paid at once; above that, the larger of 35 percent or $500,000 is paid up front and the rest over the period the jury sets or eight years, whichever is shorter, rising 4 percent a year.^[6] Future economic damages are paid 35 percent up front, with the rest through an annuity.

Fees are set by statute, as our page on how New York caps injury and malpractice fees explains. Judiciary Law § 474-a limits a malpractice contingency fee to 30 percent of the first $250,000, 25 percent of the next $250,000, 20 percent of the next $500,000, 15 percent of the next $250,000, and 10 percent of anything above $1,250,000, all computed after case expenses are deducted.^[7]

The figure we give you comes after a physician has read the chart, and it is built from the medical future the experts describe.

Malpractice Cases Built for Trial, With the Expert Costs Advanced

Every malpractice case we accept is built on these four commitments.

• Admitted in New York since 2005. Don Worley holds New York attorney registration No. 4271706, and the firm's New York working office is at 32-56 Steinway Street in Astoria.
• Accepted after a doctor has read it. We take a malpractice case when a physician's review supports it and we believe it can be proved to a Queens jury.
• Recognized by four national peer organizations. Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and the National Trial Lawyers have each recognized our attorneys.
• Expert costs carried by the firm. We advance the litigation costs, physician experts included, and no fee is owed unless the case recovers.

A malpractice suit arising in Queens can be filed in Queens County Supreme Court at 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica, and a suit against Health + Hospitals has to be brought in the county where the claim arose.

Two and a Half Years, or 90 Days Against a City Hospital

The deadline depends on who treated you and what went wrong.

• Private hospitals and doctors. Two years and six months from the error, or from the last visit in a course of continuous treatment for the same condition, under CPLR § 214-a.^[8]
• A missed cancer. Two years and six months from the later of when you knew or should have known of the error and the injury, or the end of continuous treatment, but never more than seven years after the error.
• An object left in the body. One year from when it was found, or from when facts pointing to it should have been noticed.
• A child. The deadline is extended during childhood but cannot run past ten years from the malpractice.^[9]
• Elmhurst or Queens Hospital Center. Notice within 90 days and suit within one year and 90 days; in a death case, suit within two years of the death, with the notice due 90 days after an estate representative is appointed.

A court can allow a late notice of claim against a public hospital, but only on an application, and never after the deadline to sue has passed. Continuous treatment, Lavern's Law, and the infancy rules each move a deadline that people assume has expired, which is why our page on every New York malpractice deadline walks through them one at a time.

An appointment that seemed routine can keep a claim alive, so the dates of every follow-up visit belong in the first conversation.