Duties

Home

The Incident

The Cast

The Natural History of a Lawsuit

Legalities

Duties

• Duty of Doctor and Dentist
  Duty of Hospital
  Duty of Specialist
  Duty of Doctor to Refer

Evidence
Trial Instructions

CIVJIG 80.13 Duty of Doctor-specialist

Standards of treatment by a specialist

A doctor who claims a specialty must use the same degree of skill and learning as a specialist:

1. In the same field, and

2. In similar circumstances and cases.

A doctor must use reasonable care in applying that skill and learning in treating patients.

Failure of a treatment

A doctor is not negligent simply because (his) (her) efforts are unsuccessful.

The failure of a treatment is not negligence if the treatment was an accepted treatment, based on the information the doctorhad, or should reasonably have had, when the choice was made.

A doctor must use reasonable care to get the information needed to exercise his or her professional judgment. An unsuccessful treatment chosen because a doctor did not use this reasonable care would be negligence.