You’ll be alone if you’ve ever felt uncertain after a medical procedure. Mistakes can happen in any profession, but errors can have serious consequences for your health. Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to meet the expected standard of care, leading to injury, worsening of a condition, or even death. This doesn’t mean every negative medical outcome is malpractice—but if a competent doctor wouldn’t have made the same mistake under similar circumstances, it may be time to ask questions. Recognizing this distinction is crucial to deciding whether legal action is appropriate.

When something goes wrong with your care, you might not immediately know whether it qualifies as malpractice. Some situations are more common than others when it comes to legal claims. The list below can help you determine whether your experience raises red flags:

If any of these apply to your case, you may be dealing with more than just a bad outcome—you may have a valid malpractice claim. At this stage, speaking with a professional who can assess the facts becomes critical.

The key question in any malpractice case is whether your provider met the standard of care—a legal benchmark for how a qualified practitioner should act in a specific situation. This is not based on perfection; it’s about reasonableness. Would another medical professional with similar training have made the same decision? If the answer is no, and you suffered harm as a result, the standard of care may have been breached. Proving this requires more than personal testimony—it often calls for expert opinions, detailed medical records, and legal support to uncover what went wrong and why.