Medical Malpractice
First, do no harm.The Hippocratic tradition
When the standard of care fails, Louisiana’s panel-and-fund system demands counsel who knows it cold.
A betrayal of trust, met with preparation.
You trusted a hospital, a surgeon, a physician — and that trust was broken. Medical malpractice is among the most difficult litigation a person can undertake: the science is complex, the defendants are well-insured and well-defended, and Louisiana wraps the entire process in a specialized statutory regime that does not forgive missteps.
Stephen “Curt” Aertker, Jr. spent the early part of his career on the defense side, which means he understands how providers, insurers, and the Patient’s Compensation Fund evaluate and defend these claims — and where they are vulnerable. He has carried that knowledge to the patient’s side of the table.
Medical-negligence cases turn on the standard of care, breach, and causation, each established through qualified experts. The firm prepares every case as if it will be tried, develops the medical record thoroughly, and retains the right specialists early — because in a system that runs through a physician panel, credibility and preparation are everything.
Aertker Legal handles medical malpractice matters on a contingency-fee basis. There is no attorney’s fee unless and until a recovery is made on your behalf. Case costs and expenses are advanced by the firm; the client may be responsible for them if no recovery is obtained.
A system unlike any other tort claim.
Louisiana’s Medical Malpractice Act builds a process around malpractice claims that exists nowhere else in tort law — a mandatory physician panel, a state compensation fund, a hard cap on damages, and unforgiving deadlines. Understanding each is the difference between a viable claim and a forfeited one.
The Medical Review Panel
Before a malpractice suit can be filed, the claim goes to a panel.La. R.S. 40:1231.8
In Louisiana, a claim against a qualified provider generally cannot go straight to court. It must first be presented to a medical review panel — three physicians who practice in the relevant field, chaired by a non-voting attorney — which reviews the evidence and issues an expert opinion on whether the standard of care was breached. That opinion is admissible if the case later proceeds to suit, and filing the request suspends prescription while the panel process runs.
The panel stage is where many cases are won or lost. It rewards exactly the kind of preparation the firm is built for: a thorough submission, the right supporting experts, and a clear theory of breach and causation.
- Request for review and proposed complaint
- Selection of physician panelists and the attorney chair
- Evidentiary submissions from each party
- A written panel opinion, admissible in later litigation
Qualified Providers & the Compensation Fund
Who you are suing changes everything about how you sue.La. R.S. 40:1231.1 et seq.
The Medical Malpractice Act protects only qualified health care providers — those who have shown proof of financial responsibility and paid the surcharge into the Louisiana Patient’s Compensation Fund (PCF). A qualified provider is personally liable for only the first $100,000 of a claim; the PCF pays the excess up to the statutory cap and separately funds future medical care and related benefits.
Whether a defendant is qualified — and therefore whether the panel requirement and the damages cap apply at all — is a threshold question that shapes the entire strategy. Providers who are not qualified are pursued directly, without the panel process and without the cap.
The Damages Cap
Five hundred thousand dollars — with one critical exception.La. R.S. 40:1231.2
Louisiana caps the total damages recoverable against qualified providers at $500,000, exclusive of interest and costs. The cap is aggregate — not per defendant. Its single most important exception is that future medical care and related benefits are not capped; they are paid through the PCF.
In catastrophic cases, proving the need for future care is often where the real value of a claim lies — and it demands the same life-care planning and expert development that drives any serious-injury matter.
Deadlines: Prescription & Peremption
One year to act. Three years, no matter what.La. R.S. 9:5628
Medical malpractice claims are governed by La. R.S. 9:5628, not the general tort period. A claim must be brought within one year of the negligent act or omission — or within one year of its reasonable discovery — but in no event more than three years from the date of the act, regardless of when the harm is discovered.
That three-year outer limit is peremptive: it cannot be interrupted or suspended, and once it runs, the claim is extinguished. Because the request for a review panel is what suspends the one-year clock, and because the three-year wall is absolute, the cost of waiting is measured in lost rights. If you suspect malpractice, the time to call is now.
When the standard of care fails.
Aertker Legal represents patients and the families of those harmed by medical negligence throughout St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes and across southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi, in matters including:
- Failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis — cancer, cardiac events, stroke, sepsis
- Surgical errors and retained foreign objects
- Anesthesia errors
- Medication and pharmacy errors
- Birth injuries and obstetric negligence
- Emergency-room negligence
- Hospital and nursing negligence
- Nursing-home and long-term-care neglect
- Misread imaging, labs, and pathology
- Failure to obtain informed consent
Where serious injuries arise outside the medical context, see the firm’s Personal Injury practice. Mississippi medical-negligence claims follow a different framework — including a statutory pre-suit notice period and expert-support requirements — which the firm handles for clients injured across the state line.
Harmed by a medical mistake?
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