The Short Answer
Most medical malpractice cases against a doctor take approximately two years to resolve, though the timeline can range from one year to several years. The variation depends on how many healthcare providers were involved, how complex the expert witness requirements are, how long discovery takes, and whether the case goes to trial. If your case reaches a jury trial, that alone can add one to four weeks — plus the time needed to seat a jury and allow for deliberations.
The timeline for resolving a medical malpractice case against a doctor will vary from a year to several years with the average case taking approximately two years. Why the variation? Each case is unique. There are several factors that impact the timeline in a case.
Were there several doctors or healthcare providers involved in the care? In other words, are there multiple healthcare providers that could be at fault in the medical malpractice case. It is rare that a case is clear-cut against a doctor. Usually there are multiple doctors, a hospital or nursing home, physical therapy, occupational therapy, home health and other providers of care involved in a case. As a result, the case must be thoroughly reviewed to determine who is believed to be at fault for the adverse result. Often, it is more than one healthcare provider.
What experts do you need in a case? In North Carolina, you are required to obtain expert witnesses that are willing to testify to the doctor’s negligence or malpractice prior to a lawsuit being filed with the Court. First, you must find a doctor within the same subspecialty. In other words, if you believe an orthopedist committed malpractice, you must find another orthopedist to testify against the doctor. In addition, the expert physician must be willing to testify that the doctor accused of medical malpractice deviated from the standard of care. This is the medical and legal professions way of saying the doctor accused of malpractice acted in a way that was different from the way other physicians within the same subspecialty would have acted. If there are several doctors or healthcare providers involved in the medical malpractice case, you must find experts in each field of practice.
Am I re questions must I answer and how much information am I required to provide? Filing the lawsuit does not usually take that long. However, the process of interrogatories or questions and production of documents can take some time. In other words, you and your attorney must respond to questions and a list of information requested by the defense attorney. In addition, you and your attorney will submit interrogatories and production of documents to the defense. The process of submitting and reviewing these documents may take some time. And often, the responses lead to additional questions and requests for documents.
How long does it take for questioning and information before the trial? Prior to the trial, the defense attorney will usually question or depose you about the case. They will usually depose any family or friends that were with you at the time along with the experts you have hired in your case. In addition, your attorney will depose the doctor accused of malpractice, the experts the doctor has hired and others involved in your case. This process is time consuming since you must coordinate with multiple parties which often requires travel to other areas of the state or country.
How long will the trial take? If your case goes to trial, you must first seat a jury. This often takes two or three days. The trial itself is usually one and one half to four weeks depending on the complexity of the case. Obviously it can take longer if there are multiple defendants or there is an extraordinary amount of testimony required in the case. The jury will often deliberate for a few days in the case.
As a result of these factors, you can understand why it takes so long to sue a doctor and get to trial in a medical malpractice case.
Key Takeaways
- North Carolina law requires you to secure an expert witness within the same medical subspecialty before you can even file a lawsuit, which adds significant time upfront.
- Cases involving multiple doctors, hospitals, or other healthcare providers take longer because fault must be carefully assigned to each party.
- The discovery phase — exchanging written questions, documents, and depositions — is often the most time-consuming part of the process and can generate additional rounds of requests.
- Depositions require coordinating schedules across multiple parties, including out-of-state experts, which routinely causes delays.
- If your case goes to trial, seating a jury typically takes two to three days, with the trial itself lasting one and a half to four weeks depending on complexity.
- Settling before trial is possible at any stage and can shorten the overall timeline significantly, though it depends on the facts of your specific case.
Attorney Insight
The step that consistently catches people off guard is the expert witness requirement — in North Carolina, you cannot file a medical malpractice lawsuit until you have an expert in the same subspecialty who is willing to testify that the defendant deviated from the standard of care. Finding that person takes time, and if your case involves multiple providers, you may need multiple experts across different specialties. I've seen cases where the pre-filing investigation alone takes six months or more, simply because the right experts are difficult to locate and willing ones are even harder to retain. Patients who underestimate this step are often blindsided when the process takes far longer than they expected before a single document is filed with the court.
