Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

Re: cat maimed by vet

It depends. Generally, the body of law developed in medical malpractice applies also in veterinarian negligence actions.

It is not always true that when bad things happen, the doctor was supposed to have told you of the risk ahead of time. Doctors are not guarantors of healing and neither are they predictors of the unforeseeable. Doctor�s are liable when they fail to meet the minimum standard of care in their profession.

To maintain an action for malpractice against a vet, you will need to present expert testimony (e.g., another veterinarian) to establish the standard of care against which the defendant vet's conduct is measured. Specifically here, to prevail on a claim of lack of informed consent, your expert witness must show that the reasonable veterinary standard of care would require a vet to inform you of this particular risk in the circumstance presented.

Yes, if you can establish that the vet committed malpractice, you should be able to recover the vet bills made necessary as a natural and probable consequence of the malpractice.

There�s more to consider. A personal attorney-client relation would allow you to provide more info, ask more questions, and receive more help.

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