Arizona Medical Malpractice Laws Parents Should Know Before Filing

The only thing worse than suffering harm from medical malpractice yourself is when it happens to your child. Parents must place their trust in their child’s doctor under the expectation that the medical provider will treat their child with the level of care and attention they’d apply to their own family. Unfortunately, doctors sometimes overlook crucial indicators of illness or make careless errors during diagnosis, treatment, or procedures. 

When a doctor’s negligence causes serious harm to your child, you have the right to hire an Arizona medical malpractice attorney to represent your family and bring justice and financial accountability for your child. But first, understanding Arizona’s medical malpractice laws is essential.

Can a Parent File a Medical Malpractice Claim on Behalf of Their Child?

In Arizona, minor children have the right to compensation for the harm caused to them by a negligent medical provider, just as adults. An injured child’s parent can pursue a medical malpractice claim on their child’s behalf if the child is under the age of 18 and suffered measurable harm from a doctor’s negligence.

Often, a medical malpractice claim following a child’s injury is filed in two distinct processes: one to obtain compensation for the harm to the child, often with the financial award placed into a trust for the child until they turn 18. In these cases, Arizona law requires court approval under Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-563 for settlements or court awards exceeding $10,000.

The secondary process recovers compensation for the parents’ losses, including medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for their emotional anguish.

Examples of Medical Malpractice Involving Children

Once a doctor-patient relationship is established, the doctor and medical facility must provide treatment that meets the medical community’s standards of care. Failure to do so results in the following types of medical malpractice:

• Birth injuries
• Misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Failure to treat
• Failure to recognize infection
• Medication mistakes
• Anesthesia errors, including dosage miscalculations
• Surgical errors, such as wrong-site, wrong-side, or wrong-patient surgeries
• Surgical tools left inside a body cavity
• Missed lab results
• Failure to obtain parents’ informed consent

Medical malpractice claims are legally challenging prospects, requiring substantial evidence of the medical provider’s liability and the economic and non-economic losses caused to the child and parents.

Parents Must Show That Their Child’s Case Meets the Standards of Liability In a Medical Malpractice Claim

The law requires the claimant in a medical malpractice case to meet the burden of proof. The evidence presented must show that their child’s case meets the legal standard of liability, which includes the following elements:

• That a doctor-patient relationship existed at the time the malpractice occurred
• The doctor/facility owed a legal duty of care to the child, requiring treatment at the care level accepted as standard by the medical community
• They breached this duty of care
• The breach of duty directly caused injury to the child
• The child and family suffered damages from the injury

Recoverable damages for a child include compensation for pain, suffering, and compensation for disability or permanent injury. 

Arizona’s Statute of Limitations Law Is Different for Minors

Finally, while parents have up to two years from the date the medical malpractice occurred to file a claim on behalf of their minor child, or two years from the date they discovered the malpractice (under the discovery rule), the child has two years from the date of their 18th birthday to file a claim on their own behalf.

For a birth injury claim in Arizona, the two-year statute of limitations for a child’s medical malpractice claim begins on their 18th birthday, so they have up until age 20 to file a claim.

If you have questions about how Arizona’s laws affect your child’s medical malpractice claim, an Arizona medical malpractice attorney from Knapp & Roberts can help you find answers based on the unique circumstances of your case.