Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys · Las Vegas Valley
Las Vegas Medical Malpractice Lawyer
4.7 ★★★★★ 2,735 Google Reviews
Get Your Free Medical Malpractice Consultation
No fees unless we win!
We answer day and night · No obligation
Recognized Across Nevada
Best of Las Vegas 2025 Gold Winner
Top 100 Trial Lawyers
Million Dollar
Advocates Forum
Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion
Avvo Clients’ Choice
BBB Accredited
VGK Official Partner
In This Guide
Why Hire a Lawyer for Your Medical Malpractice Claim?
You should hire a Las Vegas medical malpractice lawyer because a malpractice case asks you to prove medicine and law at the same time. Before anyone can say a provider was negligent, someone has to read the complete chart, understand what the standard of care required, and separate a genuine error from a known risk of the treatment. We do that evaluation for free, gather the records, and tell you honestly whether you have a case, while the clock runs: the deadline is two years from the day you discovered the injury or three years from the injury itself, whichever comes first (NRS 41A.097).
Filing also has a gate other injury claims do not: unlike a car accident claim, a medical malpractice suit cannot be filed without a sworn affidavit from a medical expert in a substantially similar practice area to the provider you are suing (NRS 41A.071). The affidavit must name each provider and state each specific act of negligence, and the expert has to match the medicine: a surgeon reviews a surgeon, an obstetrician reviews a birth injury. We find that expert and arrange the review before anything is filed, and the records, the review, and the filing together take months, which is why early action matters.
Adam S. Kutner spent his early career as an insurance defense attorney, so he knows how insurance companies work. The defenses follow a pattern: that the care met the standard and the injury would have happened anyway, or you consented to the risk. Each has an answer in the chart and the expert’s report.
Suing a doctor feels different from suing a driver and many patients still like the person who treated them. A consultation is only a conversation about whether the records support a claim, with legal advice about your own situation and no obligation.
What Counts as Medical Malpractice in Nevada?
Medical malpractice in Nevada is what the statutes call professional negligence: a provider fails to use the reasonable care, skill, or knowledge that similarly trained providers would use in the same circumstances (NRS 41A.015). A bad result by itself is not malpractice; the question is whether the care fell below that standard and caused the harm.
Nevada’s definition of a provider is broad: physicians, dentists, licensed nurses, physical therapists, chiropractors, psychologists, and the licensed hospitals, clinics, and surgery centers that employ them (NRS 41A.017). A claim can name the person who made the mistake, the facility, or both.
Four things have to be proven: a duty of care, a breach of the professional standard, causation, and losses. In a medical malpractice suit, the breach and causation are proven through a qualified medical expert. Our guides to medical malpractice vs. negligence and what is medical malpractice go deeper.
How We Handle Your Medical Malpractice Claim
We help medical malpractice victims in five stages, and the first one costs nothing:
Free consultation and record request
We listen, then request the complete chart on your behalf: notes, orders, imaging, labs, consent forms, and discharge paperwork.
Independent expert review
A specialist in a similar practice area reads the chart and tells us whether the care fell below the standard and caused the harm. If the answer is no, we tell you so, and you have paid nothing.
Affidavit and complaint
With the expert’s support, we prepare the affidavit that NRS 41A.071 requires and file in the Clark County District Court.
Settlement conference
Every Nevada medical malpractice case goes to a settlement conference before a district judge, with the insurers required to attend (NRS 41A.081).
Trial, if it comes to that
A professional negligence case must be brought to trial within three years of filing (NRS 41A.061), so we prepare every case for trial from the start.
No Fees Unless We Win Your Medical Malpractice Case
You pay nothing upfront and no attorney fee unless we recover money for you. Nevada caps the contingency fee in a medical malpractice case at 35% of the net amount recovered (NRS 7.095), and that cap is what makes our medical malpractice attorneys affordable for a family already carrying medical bills.
How to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Nevada
Filing a medical malpractice lawsuit in Nevada takes six steps; the first three are yours:
- Get a second opinion from a different provider.
See someone unconnected to the provider who treated you; their notes become independent evidence, and they can take over your care. Get emergency care right away if the injury demands it. - Request your medical records.
Ask every facility involved for the complete chart, in writing, and keep the date. - Write down the timeline.
Dates, names, what you were told, what you signed, and the day you first realized something was wrong because that date can decide the deadline. - Talk to us before you sign anything.
A risk manager or insurer may offer a quick resolution or ask for a recorded account; a free consultation first means you do not answer them alone. - Get the expert review.
We send the chart to an expert in a substantially similar practice area; that review decides whether a claim exists and produces the affidavit of merit, sometimes called a certificate of merit. - File, then attend the settlement conference.
The complaint and affidavit are filed together; without the affidavit, the case is dismissed (NRS 41A.071). The judge-led conference follows and tests whether the case can settle before trial; if the insurer will not pay what the evidence supports, the case is tried.
Common Types of Medical Malpractice Claims in Las Vegas
Here are some of the recurring types of medical malpractice claims in Las Vegas, each proven differently:
Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
A stroke, heart attack, cancer, or infection read as something less serious, or a failure to diagnose at all; see compensation for misdiagnosis.
Surgical errors
Wrong-site surgery, a retained sponge or instrument, or nerve damage from positioning or a misplaced incision.
Birth injuries
Oxygen deprivation, a delayed cesarean, or forceps and vacuum injuries. A birth injury claim for brain damage or a birth defect can be filed until the child turns 10 (NRS 41A.097).
Medication and anesthesia errors
The wrong drug, dose, or patient, or a failure to monitor under anesthesia; see anesthesia errors.
Failure to treat, early discharge, and hospital infections
A diagnosis followed by no treatment, an early discharge, or an infection from unsterile instruments; see failure to treat and hospital-acquired infection lawsuits.
Nevada presumes negligence in five situations: a foreign object left in the body after surgery, a fire or explosion in a substance used in treatment, an unintended burn, an injury to a body part unrelated to the treatment, and surgery on the wrong patient or the wrong organ, limb, or part (NRS 41A.100).
Who Is Liable for Medical Malpractice: the Doctor or the Hospital?
Liability for medical malpractice can rest with the individual provider, the facility, or both. NRS 41A.017 treats a licensed hospital, clinic, or surgery center that employs a negligent provider as a provider itself; whether a physician was an employee or an independent contractor affects whether the facility answers for that physician’s care. Each defendant then answers only for its own percentage of fault (NRS 41A.045), so every responsible provider has to be named.
Consent to a known risk is not consent to negligence. A signed form that explained the procedure, the alternatives, and the general risks is conclusive proof of consent under NRS 41A.110, and nothing more. See Nevada’s informed consent laws and hospital vs. individual liability.
Who Is Liable for Medical Malpractice: the Doctor or the Hospital?
A medical malpractice case in Nevada is worth the sum of two kinds of damages: economic damages for medical treatment, lost earnings, and lost earning capacity (NRS 41A.007), and non-economic damages for pain and suffering, impairment, and disfigurement (NRS 41A.011).
Economic damages have no cap. Non-economic damages do. NRS 41A.035 set the cap at $350,000 and raises it by $80,000 every January 1 from 2024 through 2028 to reach $750,000 and then by 2.1% a year. For 2026, the cap is $590,000 per case, regardless of how many defendants or theories are involved.
There is no honest average medical malpractice settlement; a missed fracture that healed late and a birth injury that needs lifetime care are decades apart in value. We build the economic side from bills, wage records, related out-of-pocket costs, and a life-care estimate, and argue the non-economic side within the cap. When malpractice caused a death, the claim becomes a wrongful death case.
Medical Malpractice Claims in Las Vegas: Hospitals, the Medical Board, and the Courts
A Las Vegas medical malpractice claim runs through a handful of hospital systems, the state licensing boards, and one courthouse. The hospitals: University Medical Center, Nevada’s only nonprofit Level I trauma center; Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, the largest acute-care hospital in Las Vegas; MountainView Hospital; the Valley Health System hospitals (Valley, Summerlin, Spring Valley, Centennial Hills, Henderson, and West Henderson); and Dignity Health’s hospitals across Henderson, North Las Vegas, and the rest of the valley.
A complaint to the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners is separate from a lawsuit. The Board takes complaints against the physicians it licenses through an online form or a fillable PDF; the Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine handles osteopathic physicians. A Board complaint can cost a doctor a license but does not pay your bills; the civil claim does, and the two can run at the same time.
The lawsuit is filed in the Clark County District Court, Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District (NRS 3.010), where the affidavit, the settlement conference, and any trial all happen. Our Henderson office at 11201 S Eastern Ave, Suite 210, Henderson, NV 89052 serves patients treated on that side of the valley, our two Las Vegas offices cover the rest, and we will meet you at home or in the hospital when travel is a problem.
Nevada Heavy Equipment Accident Laws
Nevada heavy equipment accident cases run on two sets of law: workers’ compensation statutes for the claim against your employer, and negligence and safety statutes for everyone else.
|
Nevada Law |
What it says |
Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
|
Affidavit of merit |
A complaint filed without an expert’s supporting affidavit naming each provider and each act is dismissed. |
The expert review comes before filing, so the claim starts with the records. |
|
Deadlines |
Injuries on or after October 1, 2023: three years from the injury or two years from discovery, whichever is first; earlier injuries: three years or one year. Tolled during concealment. |
The day you learned something went wrong starts a two-year count. |
|
Non-economic damages cap |
$350,000 base amount, rising $80,000 each January 1 from 2024 through 2028 to $750,000 and then 2.1% a year. Applies once per case. |
Pain and suffering is capped; bills and lost earnings are not. |
|
Expert evidence and presumed negligence |
Expert testimony is required on deviation and causation, except in the five presumed-negligence situations listed above. |
The five presumption facts flip the burden to the provider. |
|
Settlement conference |
All parties, insurers, and attorneys must attend a conference before a district judge other than the trial judge. |
The insurer has to show up and negotiate in good faith, or the defense faces sanctions. |
|
Contingency fee cap |
A contingent fee in a medical malpractice case may not exceed 35% of the net amount recovered. |
You know the fee ceiling before you sign. |
Have you been affected by medical malpractice?
Not sure whether a bad outcome was malpractice? Call (702) 382-0000 and talk it through with us for free.
FAQ About Medical Malpractice Cases in Las Vegas
Get a Free Consultation With a Las Vegas Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Hurt by a doctor, nurse, or hospital anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley? Call or start your free consultation online. We answer day and night.
Medical Malpractice Claims by Type and Related Guides
Every medical malpractice claim is part of our Las Vegas personal injury practice; neglect of an elderly patient in a care facility belongs on our nursing home abuse page, and a death from malpractice on our wrongful death page.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, talk to a qualified Nevada attorney.
¿Prefiere hablar en español?
Nuestro equipo atiende a la comunidad en español, y la consulta es gratuita.