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Medical malpractice is a broad term generally used to describe any treatment, lack of treatment, or other departure from accepted standards of medical care, health care, or safety on the part of a health care provider that causes harm to a patient. Examples of medical malpractice can take many forms, too numerous to list. Medical malpractice can include, however, misdiagnosis, improper treatment, failure to treat, delay in treatment, failure to perform appropriate follow-up, prescription errors, etc. In many instances, medical malpractice is not obvious to a lay-person and requires the review and analysis by medical experts.

Generally speaking, a medical malpractice claim may be pursued against those who provide medical or health care to a patient, including, physicians, registered nurses, hospitals, dentists, nursing homes, and pharmacists. Medical malpractice claims may be brought against individuals, partnerships, professional associations, and corporations.

A potential claimant should always seek the advice of an attorney without delay. In certain cases, there may also be other deadlines within the first two years that may also impact the case. For example, claims against government entities may require that the entity or entities be put on "notice" much earlier than the the statute of limitations period. Furthermore, given that a medical and legal analysis must be done prior to filing a lawsuit, one should not wait until the statute of limitations period is nearing its end because the attorney may not have enough time to complete the review prior to its expiration.