Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer
When a Las Vegas hospital's mistake harms you, its insurer calls it a "known risk" or points to your consent form. We prove what really happened — and advance the expert costs to do it. Free, confidential case review.
Medical malpractice isn't a bad result on its own — it's when a hospital or its staff breaches the accepted standard of care, and that failure causes the harm. Medicine carries real risks, and some complications happen even when everyone does their job. The legal question is narrower: did the care fall below what a competent provider would have done in the same situation?
Some bad outcomes are complications that can occur even with careful, competent treatment. When a risk is disclosed, genuinely unavoidable, and properly managed, it generally isn't negligence.
A preventable error a competent provider would have avoided — a missed diagnosis, a surgical mistake, an ignored warning sign, an infection from unsafe practices. When that causes harm, the hospital can be held responsible.
You don't have to know which side of that line your case falls on — that's what the investigation is for. We review the records with qualified medical experts and tell you straight whether there's a case.
Hospital negligence takes many forms, but they share one thing: a Las Vegas hospital's own systems, staff, or standards failed the patient. These are the most common types we investigate.
Operating on the wrong site, leaving instruments behind, anesthesia mistakes, or nicking an organ. These are rarely "known risks" — they're preventable events that shouldn't happen with proper protocols in place.
A missed heart attack, a cancer read as benign, an infection caught too late — in the ER or on the floor. When a hospital fails to catch what a competent provider would have, the delay itself becomes the injury.
The wrong drug, the wrong dose, a dangerous interaction, or a chart mix-up. These often trace back to rushed staff, poor communication, or broken safeguards — and they can cause lasting harm.
Sepsis, MRSA, and surgical-site or bloodstream infections picked up during a stay. When they stem from unsafe practices — unsterile equipment, poor hygiene, ignored protocols — the hospital is responsible, not you.
Too few nurses for too many patients leads to missed warnings, delayed responses, falls, and bedsores. Chronic understaffing is a systemic failure — a hospital's choice, not an accident.
More than one party can be responsible for hospital negligence — the individual provider, the hospital itself, an outside staffing company, or the hospital for the people acting on its behalf. Identifying the right defendant is half the case, and it's rarely obvious from the inside.
The doctor, surgeon, nurse, or anesthesiologist whose error caused the harm can be held directly responsible for their own negligence.
A hospital can be liable for its own failures: negligent hiring, poor credentialing, dangerous understaffing, or broken safety protocols that let preventable harm happen.
Many ER physicians and specialists aren't hospital employees — they work for outside staffing firms. That contractor may be the correct defendant, and sorting it out early keeps your claim from stalling.
Under Nevada law, a hospital is generally responsible for the negligence of its own employees acting within their duties — and, in some cases, for providers it holds out to you as its own.
The hospital's ownership shapes who the defendant is and how your claim is built. Whether the care happened at a Valley Health System hospital — Valley Hospital Medical Center, Spring Valley, Summerlin, Centennial Hills, Desert Springs, Henderson, or West Henderson Hospital — an HCA Sunrise Health facility like Sunrise, Southern Hills, or MountainView, the public University Medical Center (UMC), a Dignity Health–St. Rose Dominican campus (San Martín, Siena, or Rose de Lima), or North Vista, we know the systems behind these institutions. The hospitals serving the Strip corridor and across the valley see enormous patient volume — and volume is exactly where understaffing and rushed care turn into harm.
We identify every party that shares fault — and pursue each one.
The moment a hospital senses a claim, its insurer and defense team start building a story — usually one that puts the outcome on you or on bad luck. Here's what you'll hear, and how we take it apart.
It was a known complication.
Known risks are disclosed and can occur even with proper care. We bring in independent medical experts to show your outcome wasn't an accepted risk — it followed care that fell below the standard.
You signed a consent form.
Consent covers the known risks of competent treatment. It never authorizes negligence. A signature doesn't waive your right to care that meets the standard.
It was a pre-existing condition.
We separate what your condition would have done on its own from what the hospital's error did to it. Nevada law lets you recover when negligence causes new harm — or makes an existing condition worse.
Here's a quick settlement.
Early offers land before the full cost is known. We preserve the records, build the timeline, and value the whole claim — future care and lost earnings included — before anyone talks numbers.
“After a serious medical injury, most people wait — they assume the hospital will explain what went wrong and make it right. That patience is exactly what the hospital’s insurers are counting on.
Medical malpractice is one of the hardest, most expensive cases to prove, which is why most firms turn it away. We advance the cost of the medical experts these cases demand — so being harmed by the people meant to help you doesn’t mean facing them alone.”
Proving hospital negligence takes four things — and the medical experts to establish each. It's the work most firms won't fund. We do.
We define exactly what a competent provider or hospital should have done in your situation, through qualified experts in the relevant specialty.
We pinpoint where the care fell short of that standard — the missed sign, the wrong call, the unsafe system.
The hardest part of any case: showing the breach — not your underlying condition — caused or worsened the harm. We build that link with expert testimony and the medical record.
Nevada requires every malpractice complaint to be filed with a sworn affidavit from a qualified medical expert (NRS 41A.071). Expert review is why many firms decline these cases — we advance those costs, so you pay nothing up front.
We advance the expert costs it takes to prove your case. You pay nothing unless we win.
In a Nevada hospital negligence case, you can recover two kinds of damages — economic and non-economic. The difference matters, because one has no limit and the other does.
Because Nevada caps non-economic damages but not economic ones, the recovery lives in the details — every future surgery, every year of lost earning, the full cost of the care you'll need. We build those to the dollar.
Recovered for injury victims.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Often both. The provider who made the error can be liable for their own negligence, and the hospital can be liable for its employees, for unsafe staffing or protocols, and sometimes for contractors it presents as its own. Identifying every responsible party is part of building the case.
Surgical errors, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis, medication mistakes, hospital-acquired infections, and harm from chronic understaffing. Each traces back to a hospital's own systems, staff, or standards failing the patient.
Not necessarily. "Known complication" is one of the most common defenses hospitals raise. Whether your outcome was a genuine, unavoidable risk or the result of negligence is a question for independent medical experts — not the hospital that treated you.
Many emergency and specialist physicians work for outside staffing companies rather than the hospital. That doesn't leave you without a claim — the staffing agency may be liable, and in some cases the hospital still is. Sorting out who employed whom is one of the first things we do.
We obtain the complete medical record, have a qualified medical expert define the standard of care and show where the hospital fell short, and connect that failure to your harm. Nevada also requires a sworn expert affidavit to file (NRS 41A.071) — we advance the cost of that expert review.
Yes. You have a legal right to your complete medical records. Request the full file — not a summary — because the proof of what went wrong is usually sitting in the records the hospital already has.
No. We work on contingency, so there's no attorney fee unless we win — and we advance the expert costs these cases require, which is what stops many firms from taking them at all.
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If you think a hospital's care harmed you or someone you love, a few early moves protect both your health and your claim.
You have a right to the full file — every chart, order, and test result. Ask for all of it, not a summary.
Another qualified provider can tell you whether your care met the standard — and help catch ongoing harm early.
Don't sign releases, accept a quick payout, or give a recorded statement to the hospital's insurer before you've talked to a lawyer.
Names, dates, what was said, what went wrong — while it's fresh. Small details often become key evidence.
The clock on a medical malpractice claim in Nevada is shorter than most people expect, and once it runs out, your right to recover is gone. See how Nevada's malpractice deadlines work
Suspect a Hospital Got It Wrong? Let's Find Out — Free.
A confidential case review costs nothing, and we advance the expert costs it takes to prove hospital negligence. You pay nothing unless we win.
I had a great experience with Howard Injury Law. Anytime I had questions, they were always there with an answer ready to help. They were super attentive towards me. I'm very grateful I went to them after my car accident.
Car AccidentWas rear-ended November 2024. Never been in an accident before, let alone one where my car was totaled and I was injured. Howard Injury Law was amazing! The team walked me through everything, what to do and what to expect ... read more
Rear-End CollisionHighly recommend. I worked with James and Vanessa. They both are very nice and patient if or when you have a million and one questions. They make sure you are updated and not wondering where you stand.
Personal InjuryI can't say enough great things about Howard Injury Law. From start to finish, Glenn Howard and his amazing team James and Natalie were there every step of the way. They made a stressful situation feel manageable ... read more
Injury CaseI had a really bad accident in March 2023 and was referred to this amazing team. This being a new experience, Howard Injury Law walked me through every single step. They truly fought for me and got me more than I expected.
Car AccidentThis team was amazing. They took care of everything I needed with my personal injury and made it so easy for me. I never felt alone during the process. I would highly recommend Howard Injury Law to anyone.
Personal InjuryI would like to thank Glen Howard and James for taking such great care of me during my case. They're knowledgeable, professional, and genuinely caring. My family and I are truly grateful for the outcome they achieved.
Injury CaseFounding attorney Glen Howard built his practice after watching his own family go through the aftermath of a serious injury — an experience that shaped how he fights for clients today. For more than 20 years he's taken on hospitals, insurers, and the institutions most firms won't challenge. You work directly with Glen and a dedicated case manager on every file — not a rotating cast of paralegals.
Read Glen's full storyHoward Injury Law
6330 Spring Mountain Rd Ste D, Las Vegas, NV 89146
Watch: Medical Malpractice in Las Vegas — Hospital Mishap