Medical malpractice is a broad term which covers both the public perception of adverse events during medical care, and a legal definition of negligence.

In common with other forms of civil claims for negligence, in order to succeed in a claim (lawsuit) the claimant (plaintiff) must successfully demonsrate two things:

1. That the doctor failed in his/her duty of care towards the patient - basically this means that they may have failed to do something that a reasonable person in similar circumstances would have done or did something that a reasonable person would not have done
2. That some harm flowed from this failure

Experts are used to consider the case - these are generally independent experts from the same field of medicine. A doctor will not be expected to be the best doctor in the country, but he or she must be shown to have acted in accordance with a reasonable body of medical opinion. This is known as the Bolam Test .

In the United Kingdom such cases are heard by a single judge; in other judiciaries, they may be heard by a jury.