The Lawsuit / Course 05
The Lawsuit
What to do after notice, how a California malpractice case proceeds, and how policy limits and support affect the physician.
A claim starts a legal process. It does not prove that the physician was negligent.
Learn what happens after a claim.
Follow the possible stages from first notice through defense, resolution, or trial.
What actually happens when a California physician is sued?
A California physician guide to the first response, defense, discovery, settlement, trial, Board reporting, policy terms, and life during a malpractice lawsuit.
Guides in The Lawsuit.
Phase 01
Respond to the claim
Report the matter, preserve the record, and work through the first decisions with defense counsel.
- 01 Read the guide
You have been served: the first 48 hours
A California physician guide to the first calls, record preservation, response deadlines, and policy review after a malpractice summons arrives.
Phase 02
Understand the case process
Understand the pleadings, evidence, deposition, claim patterns, and possible outcomes.
- 02 Read the guide
How a California malpractice lawsuit proceeds
A California physician guide to the elements, deadlines, stages, and duration of a medical malpractice case.
- 03 Read the guide
What happens at a malpractice deposition
A California physician guide to deposition testimony, preparation with counsel, and the record that follows.
- 04 Read the guide
Why physicians get sued and what can reduce claim risk
A physician guide to claim patterns, communication evidence, contemporaneous records, and California's limited sympathy rule.
Phase 03
Understand financial and personal effects
Review payment data, policy limits, and support resources for a long case.
- 05 Read the guide
How often do physicians pay above malpractice limits?
What older Texas closed-claim research can, and cannot, show about physician payments above malpractice policy limits.
- 06 Read the guide
How to work and live through a malpractice lawsuit
A physician guide to litigation stress, clinical continuity, household support, and practical boundaries during a malpractice case.