The question posed in our title might seem like an obvious one, as if a medical malpractice case should speak for itself. And actually, that is one of the answers to the question. "Res ipsa" is a legal doctrine that means "the thing speaks for itself," which is a useful doctrine with medical malpractices cases given the complicated medical elements involved.

But that doesn't fully answer our question: how do you prove a medical malpractice case? There are actually some very specific factors that need to be met and considered when you are filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Since medical malpractice falls under negligence law, there are four pillars of any case that you need to prove. First, you have to prove the existence of a duty of care between you and your physician. This can be done simply be establishing past history between a patient and his or her doctor. Then you must show what the standard of care for your particular situation is.

Once these two things are established, you can move on to the third point, which is to show how the physician's deviation from the standard of care caused the patient's injury. Last but not least, you then prove and describe the injury the patient suffered.