Nationally recognized attorney, Kay Van Wey, and partners explain Medical Malpractice law from their perspective.
What Is the Standard of Care — and Why It Matters
In every medical malpractice case, one question stands at the center: Did the healthcare provider meet the standard of care?
The standard of care is not an abstract legal term. It is the very benchmark by which we determine whether a patient received safe, responsible medical treatment. It asks: what would a reasonably prudent physician or healthcare professional with similar training and experience have done under the same or similar circumstances?
This isn't something a judge or jury can guess at — it requires the voice of a medical expert. A specialist with equivalent expertise must step forward and explain what the standard should have been in that situation. They testify: This is what should have happened. And then they show how the defendant — whether it’s a doctor, nurse, or healthcare facility — fell short.
That deviation from the standard of care isn’t just a technical failure. In our cases, it’s what leads directly to devastating injuries — or, in the most tragic instances, the wrongful death of someone who trusted the system to protect them.
At Van Wey & Metzler, we understand that by the time a person contacts us, they are often in the darkest chapter of their life. Whether it’s a mother whose baby suffered a catastrophic birth injury, a patient misdiagnosed until it was too late, or a family mourning a preventable loss — they aren’t just looking for legal answers. They need compassion. They need clarity. And most of all, they need a team strong enough to carry what they can no longer bear.
That’s why one of the first things we say is: The burden is no longer yours. From the moment we take your case, it becomes our burden to bear. We ask our clients to focus on healing — physically, emotionally, and spiritually — while we focus on fighting for answers and accountability.
Our work isn’t just about compensation. Yes, we fight to make sure our clients are financially restored to the extent possible, to help them rebuild lives shattered by medical negligence. But that’s only part of what drives us.
We take these cases because they matter — not only to the client in front of us, but to every future patient who walks into a hospital room expecting safe care.
Because without accountability, there is no safety. Without oversight, profit-driven healthcare corporations will continue to prioritize their bottom lines over patient lives. Without consequences, negligent providers will keep harming people in silence.
There must be a check on the system. And that check is us.
Our firm exists to demand better — for patients, for families, and for the future of American healthcare. When providers fall short, we rise up. When the system fails, we step in to fix it.
Because the truth is, justice doesn’t happen by accident. It takes experience. It takes resolve. And it takes someone willing to say: enough is enough.
