DC, MD and VA Medical Malpractice and Workers Compensation Lawyers

A hospital violates a patient safety rule. It needlessly endangers a patient's life. An employer ignores a safety regulation, injuring a construction worker. A driver chooses to violate a Rule of the Road, causing a wreck. It shatters the world of that patient, worker or driver who is hurt or killed but it affects all of us. Violating safety rules threatens anyone who may be a patient, a worker or a driver. Everyone in the community is at risk when safety rules are violated and people are put in needless danger.
As D.C. medical malpractice lawyers, our cases are about more than fair compensation for patients, workers and families. Through our cases, we try to change the way hospitals, HMOs and employers do business, and remind them of the motto many of them have - "Safety First."

A Law Firm You Can Trust

That's our basic philospohy at Donahoe Kearney, LLP. As D.C. medical malpractice, workers compensation and injury lawyers, we try to help individual clients and the community as a whole. Since founding our law firm, we've dedicated our law practice to representing children, patients, working people and families in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Most of our cases involve worker’s compensation, medical malpractice, and serious car wrecks. Mr. Donahoe and Mr. Kearney are both nationally board certified trial lawyers and have used their nearly forty years of combined experience to help children afflicted with cerebral palsy due to hospital malpractice and medical malpractice, families who have lost a love one because of HMO medical errors, patients injured due to medical malpractice, workers seriously hurt on the job and the families of workers killed in the line of duty.

We don't advertise. No TV commercials, pay per click ads, radio ads, newspaper advertisements or anything like that. Instead, we built a completely referral based practice. Our clients come to us through word of mouth, or after learning about us. As medical malpractice attorneys, we'd rather spend our time and money working trying to help people and make the community safer than on lavish advertising budgets and flashy television ads. And we don't pass cases on to a lawyer fresh out of law school. The people we are privileged to represent deserve to have their case and their cause prosecuted by experienced medical malpractice, personal injury and workers compensation lawyers, certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Medical Malpractice

How do you find out if medical malpractice is the reason for injuries or death of a patient?

Besides caring for a disabled child or spouse, or dealing with a death in the family, you may have a nagging sense that it was caused by the hospital, HMO or doctor.

Family, friends, or even another doctor may have told you to contact a lawyer or get the matter investigated. And you know you only have a certain amount of time and energy to do that, plus you're now caring for a disabled child or spouse all the time, or grieving and dealing with the loss of a family member.

You need information.

You need help sorting it out.

You see, Hospitals and HMOs usually havea big sign in the lobby, announcing "Patient Safety" or "Our Patients' Safety is our Top Priority" and that's the way it should be. But when patient safety isn't first - when hospitals, HMOs, doctors and nurses needlessly endanger the lives of their patients, its medical malpractice. Every time.

How will you know that?

Only through a diligent and thorough investigation. By having someone work with you and medical experts in different specialties to evaluate and analyze what happened, what went wrong, and why.

That's what we do. We see if we can provide the answers, and then the help that you and your family need.

We approach it like this: just like bus drivers, accountants and teachers, health care providers have rules that govern their profession. When they choose to violate one of those rules, because they are busy, over worked, tired, don't know any better, etc. and that choice needlessly harms a patient, that is malpractice.

Good medical practice, or the standard of care, is following patient safety rules. Putting the patient first. Reviewing lab values or x-ray reports, getting the right consultations, assessing and examing the patient, communicating life threatnening information with other health care providers, following up with the patient, and much, much more.

We investigate the cause of the death or disability to get answers and peace of mind for you and your family, and the future affects of the death or disability on you and your family - the loss of income, the cost of medical care, the emotional impact.

It's a process. And you can't go it alone.

If you want answers and information, call us. We'll interview you and determine whether we can work with you - but get started now. There are time limits for filing a medical malpractice case. Because of our approach - to thoroughly investigte and analyze your case - we won't have the time to do our job if you call us just before the statute of limitations (the date you have to file a case by).

And just as important - you and your family can never get the time back either.

Workers' Compensation

We tell every one we represent exactly what we are telling you. Workers compensation is about protecting your future rights - we feel so strongly about this that it is in the title of our book on D.C. Workers Compensation - that is only available to injured workers, by the way.

If you got hurt at work, you cannot rely on your employer to file your workers compensation claim. It just doesn't work that way. Even if they say they have filed your claim (or you think they have), all they have done is notify the workers compensation insurance company. It's not the same.

Only filing your claim protects your rights, whether you were hurt while working in D.C., Maryland or Virginia.

And you need to know your rights - about where and how to get the medical treatment you need for yor injury, what you need to prove to get workers compensation benefits to replace your lost income, what you need to do if you can't go back to work.

You need a lot of information.

And you can't rely on your employer, boss or co-workers to give you the right information when you get hurt at work. They may mean well, but they may not know. And that could hurt you.

You see, the workers compensation insurance company already has lawyers, investigators, adjusters, and nurse case managers working to deny or minimize your rights, medical treatment and benefits. And especially if you are seriously injured or disabled, there are time frames and statutes of limitations for filing a workers compensation case. Or you may not know you are entitled to additional benefits for your injury or condition.

Don't rely on an insurance company to tell you what your rights and benefits are.

They are focused on the bottom line. Don’t make the mistake of trusting them to take care of you – their duty is to the insurance company shareholders, not to you.

Automobile Accidents

Car and truck accidents don't just happen. Some drivers choose to violate the Rules of the Road, or choose to text while driving, or decide to drink and drive or just don't pay attention on the Beltway.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that over 2.6 million people were injured and over 43 thousand people are killed in automobile accidents in the United States in a single year.

Those accident statistics are chilling. How do you hold a driver or his insurance company accountable for the harms and losses they cause due to drunk driving, texting while driving, aggressive driving or not paying attention on the road?

For someone who was seriously injured or for a family of someone killed in an accident, you get one chance to hold the responsible driver accountable. The other driver's insurance company has no duty to help the people its insureds injure or kill - that insurance company's duty is to its shareholders, to maximize their profits, not pay for your harms and losses - your medical treatment and bills, therapy, future medical care and treatment and lost income.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that every case and claim is different. Each case and claim must be evaluated on its own merits and past settlements or verdicts do not predict the future result of any specific case or claim. This website is not intended to give legal advice - you must retain an attorney to receive legal advice regarding the specifics of your situation. No attorney-client relationship is created by viewing this website or ordering any material available on this site. No confidential information should be forwarded until a written retainer agreement is signed. We only give legal advice to our clients after they have signed a written retainer agreement.

There is no procedure in Virginia for approving certifying organizations such as the National Board of Trial Advocacy.