Does Signing a Consent Form Mean I’ve Waived My Right to Sue?

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Transcript

Does signing a consent form mean that you’ve waived or somehow limited your right to sue. The answer is a legal answer, possibly. The purpose of a consent form is to make sure that the physician, before an invasive procedure or before a surgery is performed, to make sure that the patient understands the risks, the complications, the alternatives, generally to make sure that the patient has been educated by the physician.

If the physician fulfills his or her obligation and tells the patient the things the patient needs to know to make a decision as to whether or not to undergo surgery, then you can’t turn around and sue the doctor because you failed to tell me about something that you told me. So you limit yourself in some degree by what you are told and what you are not told.

On the other hand, a lot of the time patients sign consent forms, many patients never read those consent forms but also many doctors don’t explain to a patient what the risks are what the consequences are what the alternatives are. If the doctor fails to do that and even if you sign the consent form that consent form is not valid. So you are not bound by what you are not told and what you don’t know.