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When it comes to suing a doctor, a lot of people wonder if it makes any difference whether or not the physician is certified. The short answer is no.

If there is negligence involved for a med mal lawsuit, certification doesn’t make much, if any, difference. Board eligible or board certified doctors may all be very good at what they do, or very bad at what they do. The paper that says they are certified is just that, a piece of paper.

Board certification merely means that the doctor is certified in their specialty. This involved studying and practicing all the pre-requisites needed to take their national exam. Most exams have two parts, oral and written. Young doctors just completing their training need to wait for two years to get enough experience before they do the oral component of these exams.

Any physician who didn’t pass their board exams is still board eligible and may take the exams later. However, when the doctors have failed these exams many times, this is something a competent Austin personal injury attorney will want to take a closer look at. Failing once or twice isn’t a big issue, but more than that and there is usually a really good reason that may make a huge difference in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

On the other hand, just because a doctor isn’t board certified does not mean that he or she is deficient or makes it a habit to deviate from good and accepted medical care. In some instances, it may be shown that the doctor just didn’t have specific knowledge of a certain condition to treat a patient, which may or may not make them negligent depending on how they handled the case.

When it comes to med mal law, every case is different so a med mal attorney should obtain the client’s medical records and do a complete evaluation of the case first. In Texas, the attorney will also need a medical expert witness (another doctor) to confirm that the doctor you want to sue made an error that fell below the standard of care and that the error caused your injuries. Because of this requirement, medical malpractice lawsuits are very expensive to pursue.

When in doubt about whether or not you may have been a victim of medical malpractice, talk to an experienced Austin personal injury lawyer and find out what your rights are.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.