Colorado Area Veterinary Malpractice Lawyer

You take your pets to a licensed veterinarian because you trust that they have the education, skillset, and compassion to properly treat your pet’s sickness or injury. Unfortunately, even the best vets can be negligent and make poor choices. If you believe that negligent medical care caused injury or harm to your pet, you should contact one of our veterinary malpractice lawyers immediately.

The Animal Law Firm has years of experience fighting for the underdog. Our animal rights attorneys have successfully represented over 300 animals and pet owners in a variety of cases in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York & Tennessee, and New Jersey. Our attorneys know how much your pet, service animal, or working animal means to you. Your furry friend isn’t just a companion; they are a member of the family. We fight ethically and responsibly to get you and your pet the justice you deserve.

What Is Veterinary Negligence?

Veterinary malpractice cases are very similar laws to medical malpractice cases, except that the victims of veterinary malpractice are animals. Veterinary malpractice occurs when a veterinarian harms or causes injury to an animal because of carelessness, incompetence, or a lapse in judgment.

There are many types of veterinary malpractice cases. Some of the most common are:

• Failing to Provide Post-Operative Care and Monitoring: This occurs when the veterinary clinic or hospital is not equipped or staffed to handle an emergency, or handle monitoring your pet after an operation. This can look like: failing to take proper medical notes (not documenting anesthesia), failure to update the patient’s vitals in their chart, failure to check on the pet after an operation, not having enough fluids or medicine on site, not properly administering medication or fluids, and so on.
• Failing to Treat or Diagnose a Condition: This can result from an incorrect diagnosis or the decision to move forward with an incorrect course of treatment. Veterinary malpractice also includes stopping a treatment while the animal still is in need of medical attention.
• Surgical Mistakes: Mistakes that occur during surgery due to the veterinarian’s negligence or a lack of proper professional training and skill needed to perform the operation. Just like humans, surgical implements or other foreign objects can end up inside pets’ bodies, resulting in disease, internal bleeding, and other horrible symptoms and can lead to death. Surgical mistakes often seen in pets are also failure to properly close incisions, wounds, or failure to properly clean a wound resulting in infection and sepsis.
• Performing Unnecessary Procedures: Unfortunately, dishonest veterinarians can add on treatments to inflate your bill and get money. Performing surgeries, conducting tests, and prescribing medications that are unnecessary or do not provide medical benefit for your pet is considered veterinary malpractice.

Though mistakes are frustrating, they don’t always mean that a lawsuit is necessary. If your animal is harmed or their condition worsens after medical treatment, it does not automatically constitute negligence on the part of your veterinarian. To be categorized as veterinary malpractice, your vet must have:

• Accepted the responsibility to treat the animal.
• Failed to exercise an acceptable level of professional skill and care while treating the animal.
• As a result of their failure, your pet became sicker, was injured, or died.
• You, the animal’s owner, experienced harm or damages pertaining to the vet’s negligence.

What Should I Do If I Suspect Veterinary Malpractice?

It doesn’t matter if you are seeing the vet just for a routine examination; you should always ask the vet for your pet’s records after each visit. Keep your pet’s records at home in a safe place in case you may ever need them for any reason.

This can allow you to have a reliable history of your pet’s treatments should a problem arise and prohibit the vet from making changes or alterations to their records in the event of a claim. If you suspect your pet may be the victim of veterinary malpractice, immediately request all and any records your vet’s office has. You should also write down what you remember about any visits, or conversations with your vet.

Under no circumstances should you leave your pet with the veterinarian you suspect of malpractice. If your pet is still in their care, immediately reclaim them as soon as possible without posing a risk of further injury. Once you reclaim your pet, be sure to take as many photos as possible.

Have your pet examined by another veterinarian, and keep records of their findings. In the unfortunate event that your pet is deceased, have a necropsy performed. A necropsy can help discover and provide evidence for the cause or manner of your pet’s death. Another veterinarian should conduct this and not the one you suspect of malpractice. When it comes to coordinating the transfer of the body, the other veterinarian can assist with an overview of options to do so, even if the body has been frozen.

If you suspect your veterinarian of malpractice, you should always contact a reputable animal attorney that you trust. Attorneys can help you discover if your veterinarian has had any previous claims of veterinary malpractice filed against them. Animal rights attorneys can help you contact an outside veterinarian to ask them to take an overview of your pet’s medical records and compose an opinion letter regarding the treatments or procedures the vet in questions performed. They can advise you on the likelihood of a successful claim, guide you on the next steps to filing one, and provide you with a list of options to take to seek justice for you and your pet.

What Evidence Do I Need To Prove Veterinary Malpractice?

To be successful in your claim, you need to provide evidence that your veterinarian did not perform their job to a reasonable professional standard and that their failure to do so resulted in the harm, injury, or death of your pet.

Evidence can include:

Your pet’s veterinary and medical records.

Phone calls with your veterinarian or their office staff, and conversations you had during a visit.

Photographs of your pet’s injuries.

Professional opinions from independent, third party veterinarians.

Is It Worth Suing the Vet?

Your vet has a responsibility to provide professional skill and care while treating your pet. If you believe that your pet was harmed, injured, or killed on behalf of a negligent or untrained veterinarian, it can be worth taking legal action against them. If you believe you can provide evidence that proves your veterinarian committed malpractice while treating your pet, you should contact the Animal Law Firm attorneys for a consultation.

Typically, it is recommended that you file a claim against the vet in the case of high medical expenses. Taking action in a veterinary malpractice case can end up being extremely costly due to the nature of the case.

Your attorney will need obtain a signed affidavit from a third-party veterinarian (often called a certificate of merit). Once you have this in hand, you can proceed with litigation. It is common for the veterinarian’s insurance company to file multiple motions to get your claim dismissed from court. This is why you need an experienced animal lawyer to represent you and get justice for your beloved pet.

Our legal team can assist you in recovering the damages you deserve from the veterinarian. It is most common to be awarded damages for any medical expenses that were acquired while your pet was in the veterinarian’s care, the expenses that they charged you unnecessarily, and/or charges incurred by another vet to save your pet.

In our practice states, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York & Tennessee, and New Jersey, your pets are legally considered your property. If your pet has died as the result of veterinary malpractice, you can be awarded damages in the amount it would cost to replace your pet at a reasonable, fair market value. Depending on the facts of your case, you may be able to recover damages for any loss in income you experienced due to a result of having to care for your pet as a result of the malpractice.

Our Pets Are More Than Property

At The Animal Law Firm, we know that pets aren’t just replaceable. For most of us, they are not property; they are part of the family. Being a victim of veterinary malpractice is traumatic for both you and your pet. Unfortunately, because of the laws of the state, receiving compensation for emotional distress or your loss of companionship is difficult, but not impossible. The laws continue to change and evolve in this regard and as more and more people treat their pets like children, it is only a matter of time before the law catches up.

Before filing a claim, it is also a good idea to take into consideration any laws that may be protecting your vet as well. Most states have a typical statute of limitations or the maximum amount of time you have to file a legal complaint against another party, of about two (2) years when it comes to veterinary malpractice. If you wait until the statute of limitations has expired to file your claim, you will not be able to seek damages from the veterinarian in question.

In some cases, veterinarians are also protected by Good Samaritan laws. If a veterinarian has provided care for your pet with emergency treatment outside of their office, like a car accident, they will be protected from the law unless their actions fall under that category of gross negligence. The actions that your veterinarian took must have been so blatantly reckless, or knowingly disregarded the safety of others, for your claim to be admissible in court.

What Other Action Can I Take?

If it does not make financial sense to sue the vet you believe to have committed veterinary malpractice, there are other steps our animal rights attorneys can take to help you receive justice. The veterinarian in question mustn’t cause further harm to animals in the future.

Sometimes, as an alternative to a veterinary malpractice claim, it is possible to make a claim for negligence against the vet. For example, if your pet did not receive enough food or water while in the veterinarian’s care, or if your pet was left in a position where they were easily able to escape. These cases would not fall under the definition of veterinary malpractice, but you can seek damages from the vet or their office employees for negligence when it comes to the care of your pet.

If your pet was injured, harmed, or even killed by a medical device that was used during their treatment, but the veterinarian or staff used the device at a correct professional standard, it may be worth inquiring about a claim against the product manufacturer.

We encourage clients who do not want to undergo a claim to report their veterinarian to the right authorities. You can file a complaint with your state’s professional licensing department or agency. Filing a complaint will get the attention of the right agencies, who can perform investigations into the veterinarian in question’s practice. Depending on what the investigation finds, the vet can receive disciplinary actions, including fines or a suspension of their license to practice.

Even if the investigation does not result in any disciplinary action for the vet in question, your complaint will remain on record in the event that another individual chooses to take action against them in the future as well.

An animal rights attorney can also assist you in crafting a letter of demand to the veterinarian’s insurance company. This can help you recover monetary damages from the veterinarian without filing a claim and engaging in the lengthy legal process.

Why Do I Need a Veterinary Malpractice Lawyer?

If you want to get justice for your pet and seek the damages you deserve, representation from an animal rights attorney is essential. Veterinary malpractice lawyers are skilled in their practice and know the ins and outs of animal law. They have the experience necessary to approach a variety of cases and can confidently represent you and your claim.

Malpractice cases can be very complex and full of medical jargon that can be hard to understand. The Animal Law Firm has successfully navigated many veterinary malpractice cases and helped clients file various complaints. If your pet has been the victim of veterinary malpractice, contact us for a consultation today.