Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Bellevue

40+ Years Fighting for Injury Victims. Robert Kornfeld Knows What Recovery Really Costs.

When a healthcare provider’s negligence causes serious harm, the path forward is complicated, and the stakes are high. Medical malpractice cases demand attorneys who understand both the legal complexity and what it actually means to be a patient fighting to recover. At Lindquist & Kornfeld, we bring that understanding from both directions: more than 40 years of personal injury practice and attorney Robert Kornfeld’s own experience surviving 12 surgeries after a catastrophic injury in 1985.

We serve clients throughout Bellevue and King County, handling medical malpractice claims on a contingency fee basis. That means no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. Consultations are free, and if you can’t travel to our office, we can come to you, whether that’s your home or your hospital room.

If you or someone you love was harmed by a medical provider’s negligence, call Lindquist & Kornfeld today at (425) 657-5255 for a free consultation with no obligation.

Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle

Medical negligence takes many forms. We represent Bellevue residents in cases involving a wide range of healthcare failures, including situations where a bad outcome wasn’t just an unfortunate risk but the result of a provider falling below the accepted standard of care.

Our medical malpractice practice covers:

Failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis: Missing a condition that a competent provider would have identified
Failure to timely diagnose or treat a stroke or aneurysm: Time-critical errors that result in permanent brain damage or death
Surgical errors: Preventable mistakes made before, during, or after a procedure
Childbirth injuries: Negligence during labor and delivery that harms the mother, the baby, or both
Failure to obtain informed consent: Performing a procedure without adequately explaining its known risks
HMO negligence: Systemic failures by managed care organizations that deny or delay necessary treatment
Hospital negligence: Unsafe practices, inadequate staffing, or poor departmental communication within a facility
Nursing home negligence: Medication errors, inadequate supervision, or failure to prevent foreseeable harm
Wrongful death arising from medical negligence: Claims brought by families when a loved one dies due to a provider’s error

Liability in a Washington medical malpractice case can extend beyond a single physician. Individual doctors, surgeons, nurses, technicians, hospitals, and clinics may all bear responsibility depending on where the failure occurred.

Medical Malpractice Results

Our case results reflect what we’ve recovered for clients facing devastating medical injuries. Past results don’t predict future outcomes, but they demonstrate our capacity to pursue complex, high-value claims through every stage of litigation.

$2,825,000 settlement (Superior Court, confidential): A baby suffered hypoxia and traumatic brain injury during birth caused by negligence of the treating physician and hospital nursing staff
$2,500,000 settlement (Superior Court, confidential): A healthcare provider failed to diagnose an intracranial aneurysm that ruptured and caused permanent brain damage to a 54-year-old patient who now requires around-the-clock care
Confidential settlement: A stillbirth case in which we alleged that healthcare providers were negligent in failing to induce labor for a full-term baby showing signs of acute fetal distress on monitoring strips

Our track record in catastrophic injury cases also includes an $8,500,000 recovery for a motor vehicle wrongful death and $5,200,000 in a spine injury case, reflecting our ability to handle the most serious and complex claims.

Talk to a Bellevue Medical Malpractice Attorney Today

You shouldn’t have to navigate a malpractice claim while also managing your recovery. We handle the legal work so you can focus on getting better. There are no upfront fees, and we only collect if we recover compensation for you. If you can’t come to us, we can meet you where you are.

Contact Lindquist & Kornfeld at (425) 657-5255 to schedule your free consultation. We serve clients throughout Bellevue, Kirkland, Seattle, Everett, and across Washington State.

What Qualifies as Medical Malpractice in Washington

Not every negative medical outcome is malpractice. Washington law distinguishes between a known complication and a failure that no competent provider should have allowed. Understanding that line is the first step in evaluating whether you have a viable claim.

Under RCW 7.70.040, a healthcare provider is held to the degree of care, skill, and learning expected of a reasonably prudent provider in the same profession or class, acting in the same or similar circumstances anywhere in Washington State. When a provider’s conduct falls below that standard of care and directly causes patient harm, Washington law recognizes a basis for a malpractice claim. Courts generally require qualified medical expert testimony to establish both the breach and the causal connection to the injury.

Under RCW 7.70.030, a Washington medical malpractice claim can rest on three distinct bases: a provider’s failure to follow the accepted standard of care, a provider’s promise that an injury would not occur, or a procedure performed without proper informed consent. Informed consent failures are more common than many patients realize. If a provider didn’t explain a material risk and you suffered harm from exactly that risk, you may have a claim regardless of how skillfully the procedure itself was performed.

Signs that a bad outcome may have involved negligence include a treatment that worsened your condition or caused a new injury, a failure to order a diagnostic test that would be standard for your condition, a provider who wouldn’t explain their decisions or your options, or a death following a procedure when the prognosis was otherwise positive.

Common Medical Errors That Lead to Malpractice Claims

Medical malpractice cases in Bellevue and across Washington most frequently fall into a handful of recognized error categories. Knowing how each type of negligence typically presents can help you assess whether your experience warrants a closer look.

Failure to Diagnose & Delayed Diagnosis
A provider misses or delays identifying a condition that a competent doctor would have recognized, allowing the illness to progress and cause preventable harm. Cancer, stroke, sepsis, and pulmonary embolism are among the conditions most often involved in these claims.

Surgical Errors
Operating on the wrong site, leaving instruments inside the body, performing an unnecessary procedure, or making a preventable technical mistake during surgery. These errors frequently cause additional surgeries, permanent damage, or life-threatening complications.

Childbirth Injuries
Negligence during labor and delivery can deprive a newborn of oxygen, cause nerve damage such as a brachial plexus injury, or result in maternal hemorrhage. Both mother and child may have separate claims depending on the circumstances.

Failure to Obtain Informed Consent
A provider performs a procedure without adequately explaining the known risks, and the patient suffers harm from a risk they would have declined the procedure to avoid. Washington treats this as a separate basis for a malpractice claim, independent of whether the technical execution was flawed.

HMO & Hospital Negligence
Systemic failures within a healthcare facility, including inadequate staffing, poor communication between departments, or failure to maintain a safe patient environment, can cause serious harm that no single clinician ordered or intended.

Nursing Home Negligence
Inadequate supervision, medication errors, or failure to prevent foreseeable harm to a vulnerable resident in a care facility. These cases often involve patients who can’t advocate for themselves, and families frequently don’t discover the negligence until significant harm has already occurred.

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Our Proven Results

Our top priority is to devise customized legal strategies that are tailored to the unique legal needs of our clients, no matter how simple or complicated their situations, might be.

$50,000 Motor Vehicle Accident
A hit and run car accident that totaled Plaintiff’s car. Plaintiff suffered neck, back, left shoulder and arm injuries as well as PTSD.

Car Accident
$2,362,000 Medical Malpractice
Jane Doe v. Hospital and Dr. Radiologist (confidentiality) A doctor and hospital agreed to pay $1,900,000 and a health insurer agreed to waive recovery of subrogation reimbursement of $462,000 as a result of a radiologist’s failure to correctly read a MRI which, if correctly read in accordance with the standard of care, would have shown a posterior communicating aneurysm and which was treatable.

Medical Malpractice
$1,100,000 Car Accident
Knee injury of football player: $1,100,000 mediated settlement short of trial of knee injury of 30 year old football player following head on car collision.

Car Accident
$850,000 Motor Vehicle Accident
Despite being in the middle of the van in his wheelchair with a neck support for the back of his head, our client suffered a cervical whiplash injury. This seemingly minor injury had catastrophic consequences for our client.

Brain Injury
$150,000 Motor Vehicle Accident
Our client was the driver of a car that was rear-ended. They sustained a concussion and neck and back injuries. To date, they have not been able to return to work due to post-concussive symptoms. Another good example as to why we need to have sufficient car insurance.

Car Accident
$25,000 Motor Vehicle Accident
The defendant driver failed to stop at stop sign and collided with Plaintiff’s car. Plaintiff’s car was totaled. She sustained neck, back and bilateral shoulder injuries.

Car Accident
$350,000 Premise Liability
Jane Doe vs Grocery Store, et al: A mother was shopping with her daughter, son in law, and granddaughter. She reached down to select a spice bottle and the shelf system collapsed on her head and neck, causing neck and upper back injuries. The client suffered cervical injuries and underwent a double level cervical fusion with hardware and bone graft from her hip. The supplier, grocery store and manufacturer of the spice product each contributed to the settlement.

Brain Injury
$325,000 Truck Accident
Jane Doe v. Scheister Truck Co: Jane Doe was rear ended by a truck and trailer and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury without any objective findings.

Brain Injury
$700,000 Personal Injury
Eye Injury at school to boy in gym class. A 16 year old boy lost a great deal of his vision in his right eye after another two students were kicking around a tape ball and their activities were not supervised or stopped by two gym instructors in the immediate area. The tape ball struck the boy in the eye as he sat down tying his shoe.

Personal Injury

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How We Handle a Bellevue Medical Malpractice Claim

Medical malpractice cases are among the most demanding in personal injury law. They require thorough review of medical records, coordination with qualified medical professionals who can testify about the standard of care, and the resources to take a case all the way to trial if necessary. We manage that entire process on your behalf.

From the moment you contact us, we gather and review your medical records, consult with professionals who can establish where care fell below the accepted standard, and build a claim that accounts for the full scope of your losses, past and future. We handle all communications with insurance companies and opposing parties so you don’t have to. As your case develops, we prepare you for depositions, mediation, and trial so you know what to expect.

When a fair settlement isn’t on the table, we take cases to King County Superior Court. Insurers and defense attorneys know we’re willing to litigate, and that willingness can shape how negotiations unfold. We serve clients in Bellevue, Kirkland, Seattle, Everett, and throughout Washington State, and if you can’t make it to our office, we can come to you.

Why Bellevue Injury Victims Choose Lindquist & Kornfeld

Robert Kornfeld doesn’t just understand serious injury in the abstract. He woke up in a hospital in July 1985 with severe injuries and spent years working through 12 surgeries and his own recovery. That experience shapes how we approach every client relationship. We know what it means to face a long recovery, to feel uncertain about the future, and to need someone in your corner who understands what you’re going through.

Our legal team is led by Robert Kornfeld and Neil Lindquist. Neil is recognized by Super Lawyers, and the firm holds membership in both the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. These recognitions reflect a sustained record of results in serious injury cases, not a single outcome.

We’ve been representing injury victims since 1985. Clients receive attentive, personalized representation built around the specific facts of their case. We treat the people we represent as family, and that isn’t a slogan. It’s the standard we hold ourselves to in every case we accept.

Compensation Available in a Washington Medical Malpractice Claim

Washington State has no statutory cap on medical malpractice damages. Unlike many states that limit what injured patients can recover, Washington allows a successful claimant to seek full compensation for all losses the negligence caused.

Recoverable damages can include past and future medical expenses, costs of assistive devices, long-term rehabilitation, and the ongoing expenses of chronic conditions caused by the original error. Economic losses such as lost wages and reduced future earning capacity are also recoverable. Non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, mental anguish, disability, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life, are available as well. For families who lost a loved one to medical negligence, a wrongful death claim can seek compensation for both economic support and the profound personal loss that no settlement can fully address.

Washington’s Medical Malpractice Filing Deadline

Washington law sets strict time limits on medical malpractice claims under RCW 4.16.350. The general rule is three years from the date of the act or omission that caused the injury. A separate discovery rule allows a claim to be filed within one year of the date the patient discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that a medical error caused their harm, even if that date falls more than three years after the negligent act.

Certain circumstances can toll the limitations period. If the patient is a minor or legally incapacitated at the time of the negligence, or if a provider concealed or committed fraud related to the error, the deadline may be extended. Washington’s former eight-year statute of repose was ruled unconstitutional and unenforceable by the Washington Supreme Court, so the operative deadlines are now the three-year rule and the one-year discovery rule.

Missing the filing deadline can bar a claim entirely, even a strong one. The sooner you speak with a medical malpractice attorney, the more options may remain open. Contact Lindquist & Kornfeld at (425) 657-5255 to find out where your situation stands.

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What Makes Our Firm Unique

40+ Years of
Proven Legal Experience
With decades of hands-on litigation and negotiation, we bring a deep understanding of how to build strong, successful cases.
Aggressive & Personalized
Representation
We tailor our legal strategies to your unique situation, relentlessly pursuing the maximum compensation you're entitled to.
Committed to Securing
Justice for Each Client
We treat every case with the urgency and dedication it deserves, ensuring your voice is heard and your rights are protected.
No Fees Unless
We Win Your Case

Our clients can focus on healing while we fight for results—because we only get paid when you do.

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