Legal Question in Federal Tort Claims in Texas
Tort Claim
In 1997 I filed a Federal Tort Claim as a result of permanent injuries caused by a military doctor. He refused to send me to a specialist I am required to see and delayed my treatment for about 6 months. I ended up legally blind as a result of this, I have rare congenital defects of my eyes that require monitoring by specialists. I had an attorney for about two years of this process and when the claims attorney wrote him that he was going to send my claim forward as being denied, my lawyer ''dumped'' me. I wrote the claims attorney just in time to stop him from forwarding the recommendation for denial. He said that something I said in the letter required him to go back and interview certain doctors. The army then wanted another review of my medical records. I found this out in July. In September, I contacted the claims attorney again for an update and he said they were trying to find a retina specialist to review my records. After this I hear nothing until this week. I was told a military retinal specialist is reviewing my records. How fair is this? They tend to side with the other military doctors and protect each other. How long can they drag this out?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Tort Claim
They have the right to have your records reviewed by anyone they choose. So do you. This is called the "battle of the experts" in litigation jargon, and is why claims such as you describe are so very expensive.
If you don't like the findings of the military retina specialist, then your option is to employ such a specialist yourself and hope he has contrary findings which favor your case.
The road will be difficult from here on if they again deny your claim, as the expenses of having to do it yourself will be great, and the journey will be long.
Best of luck.
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