Legal Question in Legal Malpractice in Maryland

Re: veterinarian malpractice

Professional malpractice would involve showing a breach of a duty of care that proximately caused injury. Presuming that you can show this, you must also show damages. This is where your difficulty will most like be as pertains to a pet. The law in Maryland treats pets simply as "chattel" (that is as "things"). They are not treated as "people". Thus, the only damages that are available generally in such circumstances would be to recover the market value of the animal. Since the market value of most pets is relatively small (even the best show dogs etc have relatively little actual market value -- perhaps a few thousand dollars in the best case), damages likely be relatively limited. Thus, most attys would not take such a case on a contingency basis, but would want to be paid on an hourly basis. If that is put together with the fact that a person would also need to hire another vet as an expert witness in order to prevail, the result is that a vet malpractice case as relates to a family pet is most likely not economically viable. Occaisionally, such cases might make sense with valuable stud horses etc, but probably very hard to make the economics work for a family pet.

If nonetheless you are interested in pursing such on an hourly basis, I would be happy to chat with you about finding an appropriate attorney.

Lawrence R. Holzman, Esquire

Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A.

6404 Ivy Lane, Suite 400

Greenbelt, MD 20770

(301) 220-2200

fax (301) 220-1214

Disclaimer: Please note that the posting of this response is not intended to constitute legal advice. You should contact an attorney to obtain information applicable to your situation. This posting is not confidential or privileged and does not create an attorney/client relationship.