<p>How exactly does one go about getting into a field such as malpractice law? How much medical knowledge is expected of malpractice lawyers? Is it the sort of field that has entire firms devoted to it, or is it difficult to find somewhere where you can do just malpractice?</p>
<p>Rubbernecking, your should have some medical terminology knowledge, and over time you will pick up more and more. Of course the real medical "knowledge" in such cases cmes from your expert witnesses.</p>
<p>Depending on which side of the bar you are on -- plaintiffs' or defendants' -- there are several different employment models. On the plaintiffs' side, there are many small firms and sole practioners that sepcialing in personal injury cases, including med. mal cases. Also, there are a few well known large firms that also have a plaintiffs' practice group, although the bulk of the employment is in the small firm arena.</p>
<p>On the defense side, the bulk of the employment is in the medium sixe insurance defense firms. Since no doctor practices without insurance, these cases are really just another genre of insurance defense work. There are, however, some firms that do only med. mal defense, such as in house Drs. mutual insurers.</p>
<p>Most insurance companies who write medical malpractice do not employ attorneys to defend the insured physicians. They use outside counsel, but the insurers dictate pretty low hourly rates, or keep them on retention. </p>
<p>The majority of defense attorneys come from small to mid-size firms. Attorneys who do med mal defense work rarely, if ever, do anything else. It is a true specialty.</p>
<p>You do have to have a strong understanding of practice, and clinical terms and procedures is a must. There are some attorneys who have an M.D., but not many. Most learn it on the job.</p>
<p>The best med mal attorneys do have one thing in common: they know how to work with freaked out doctors and nurses, who typically are 100% sure they did nothing wrong (even when they did), and the best attorneys are good at coming across as warm and fuzzy - it takes that kind of approach for the jury to side with the defendant instead of with a badly injured plaintiff.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I've given dozens of depositions and I can tell you this much: there is almost never any doubt about which atty in the room represents the insurance company and/or physician and which one represents the plaintiff. Around here the former is likely to be a Tulane grad and the latter is likely to be, well, not.</p>