Avoiding malpractice: Could it be done? Not really, but making sure that you have a clear idea of the suggested treatment or surgical procedure and that it has been clearly defined by the veterinarian or animal surgeon will set the path for a successful intervention or treatment.
Also do not hesitate to seek a second advice.
Monitor your dog stay at the animal hospital and trust your common sense.
Malpractice source is often related to careless and negligence from the vet or the vet staff; checking for rating or commentaries online could help you making the final decision.
If your best friend died, quickly, claim the remains and visit another vet or a vet school to seek a post mortem (cost will be associated with the necropsy).
Unfortunately no malpractice statistics are available; however the Examiner found some alarming results from a UK survey of less than 100000 recent graduated vets, about 78 percent of the group admitted having made once a mistake that could have endangered the pet’s life.
A so-so approach is to use statistics from the American Medical Association and extrapolate this known percentage to US pet population, if there is a common ground then the number could be quite high, roughly 100K cases on a yearly basis, again this is not based on proven records, probably insurance companies do have reliable data but they do not share or publish it.
Proven fact: Suing might not be your best option, if you add attorney’s fees and expert witness’s fees. Plus cost of your own time and travel you could end by paying out of pocket more than you will eventually gain.
Unless your case is so obvious that the Court could not do otherwise than receiving favorably your claim you should be prepared to possibly lose your case if you do not hire an expert witness (an expert witness could not be your next neighbor, an expert needs to be recognized as a professional expert in a specific field).
Alternative: Settling the matter directly with the vet or even better with the vet’s assurance company that will be better off not going through the court full cost of fighting your claim.
Compensation; based for example on: Sentimental value combined with state of emotions (not widely accepted although its acceptation is raising), treatment cost, pet’s Dollar value, punitive damages requires to prove that harm was done intentionally.
Your dog owner responsibility is to prove that the defendant was under duty of care, meaning that the veterinary has accepted the responsibility to take care of the dog, incompetence or sub-standard conduct and that harm have been done.
Other useful info:
Veterinary standard could be defined has diligence exercised by other skilled veterinarians, death of an animal is not sufficient to prove incompetence, circumstances are.
Delay to file a claim: Up to three years, but be aware that the sooner the better, convincing the court years after the event occurred is growing tougher in direct proportion with the events’ age.
FYI: Cases up to $5000 are filled in Small Claims Court. Small Claim Court only considers tangible expenses; as such do not expect any emotional compensation. Nowadays many cases top the 10K range therefore not judged in SMC. .
Furthermore: In conjunction with the suit or If the dog owner was not awarded any monetary damages the owner may decide to pursue the action with the Veterinary State Licensing Board.
Similarly a complaint should be addressed to the County Veterinary Association.