Massachusetts Medical Malpractice Laws & Statute of Limitations

If you're thinking about suing a doctor or other health care provider in Massachusetts for medical malpractice, you'll most likely want to find a qualified medical malpractice lawyer to guide your claim through all of the complicated legal steps these cases involve. But you'll also want to know when you need to take action, along with other rules that could affect the outcome of your case. This article gives you an overview of those rules in Massachusetts, including:

• the time limits for filing medical malpractice lawsuits
• evidence you need to provide at the outset of your case
• state limits on the amount of money you may receive for the harm you've experienced, and
• state rules on shared fault for injuries from medical malpractice.

Time Limits for Filing Medical Malpractice Lawsuits in Massachusetts

A "statute of limitations" is a law that sets a time limit on when you may file a lawsuit. If you don't meet the deadline, your case will almost always be dismissed. Like most states, Massachusetts has a specific statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits, but it also has various rules on when the "clock" for that time period starts running or pauses.

The Three-Year Deadline and the Discovery Rule

If you want to sue a health care provider for medical malpractice, Massachusetts law requires that you file the lawsuit within three years "after the cause of action accrues." Generally, that happens when you are injured or otherwise harmed as a result of alleged medical negligence by the defendant physician or other health care provider. But Massachusetts courts apply the "discovery rule" in medical malpractice cases, which means that the three-year period doesn't start until you learned—or reasonably should have discovered—that the care you received might have caused your injuries.

In addition, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has held that the three-year statute of limitations doesn't begin to run while the patient is still receiving ongoing treatment from the defendant health care provider for the same medical condition. However, this ongoing-treatment exception to the standard discovery rule ends once the plaintiff actually knows that the defendant's negligence was the cause of injury. (The "should have discovered" rule does not apply in this situation.) (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 4 (2022); Parr v. Rosenthal, 57 N.E.3d 947 (Mass. 2016).)

Filing Deadlines When the Patient Was a Child

Generally, the three-year filing deadline in Massachusetts applies when the patient is a minor (under the age of 18). That means that the lawsuit must be filed within three years after the minor's parents knew or should have known that the defendant's medical treatment might have caused the child's injuries. However, if the patient was under the age of six, the deadline is extended until the child's ninth birthday. (Mass. Gen. Laws ch 231, § 60D (2022).)

The Seven-Year Filing Deadline

Massachusetts also has an almost-absolute outside deadline for filing a medical malpractice action (known as a "statute of repose"), which applies regardless of the discovery date, when the physician-patient relationship ended, or the patient's age. The lawsuit must be filed within seven years after the alleged negligence happened—unless that negligence involved leaving a foreign object (like a surgical instrument) in the patient's body. (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 4 (2022).)

When Massachusetts Extends the Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice

In Massachusetts, there are certain circumstances that will "toll" (legalese for pause) the statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, including while:

• the defendant fraudulently hides the negligent action or inaction
• the defendant is living outside of Massachusetts, and
• the patient is incapacitated by mental illness.

(Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, §§ 7, 9, 12 (2022).)

"Offer of Proof" and Review by a Medical Malpractice Tribunal

Many states have laws requiring plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases to submit some evidence of the defendant's negligence at the beginning of the case. In Massachusetts, this requirement doesn't apply when you first file the lawsuit—but almost immediately afterwards.

Within 15 days after the defendant has filed a response to your complaint, you will need to submit what's known as an "offer of proof" to a special medical malpractice tribunal. The offer of proof must include enough evidence to demonstrate that the following are probably true:

• the defendant is a health care provider
• the defendant didn't meet the appropriate standard of care in your case, and
• you were harmed as a result.

Along with the relevant medical records, the evidence should include a report from one or more medical experts or information from published medical books or periodicals. Typically, an expert's opinion will be needed on the issue of the standard of care.

The three-person tribunal will review your offer of proof and, when appropriate, may subpoena other evidence and/or appoint an impartial expert to report back after examining you or the evidence. The tribunal will then decide whether the evidence raises a legitimate question about the defendant's liability for medical malpractice, or whether your case was "merely an unfortunate medical result." If the tribunal rules that your evidence isn't sufficient to take your claim to court, you would have to post a bond (generally $6,000) in order to continue with the lawsuit. (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 60B (2022).)

Limits on Damages in Massachusetts Medical Malpractice Cases

Like several other states, Massachusetts has set a limit on the amount of money you may receive for certain types of medical malpractice damages. Even if you win your lawsuit, you may not receive more than $500,000 for pain and suffering, loss of companionship, "embarrassment," or other types of noneconomic damages (as opposed to economic damages such as lost income, extra medical bills, and other financial losses).

However, the cap on noneconomic damages will not apply if the jury (or judge) has found that you suffered substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function or substantial disfigurement as a result of the malpractice, or there are other "special circumstances" that justify awarding noneconomic damages over the $500,000 limit in order to ensure that you receive fair compensation for your injuries. (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 60H (2022).)

Shared Fault Rules in Massachusetts

In some medical malpractice cases, the defendant may argue that you were at least partially responsible for your injuries (for example, by failing to follow a doctor's orders after a medical procedure). If the defendant proves that was true, your award for damages may be reduced—or eliminated altogether—under what's known as the "modified comparative negligence" rule in Massachusetts.

Modified comparative negligence works like this:

• If your own negligence wasn't greater than the total negligence of all defendants in the case (i.e., you weren't responsible for more than 50% of the total fault), your award will be reduced in proportion to your share of the blame. So if you were 20% at fault and were awarded $100,000 in damages, you would receive $80,000.
• If your negligence was greater than 51% of the total negligence in the case (including your own and all of the defendants' fault), you would receive nothing.

(Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 85 (2022).)