Condado de Bergen / Garfield / Negligencia Médica

Garfield Medical Malpractice Lawyer Condado de Bergen, New Jersey

If you were hurt in Hackensack, James Vasquez fights to get you every dollar you are owed. He has represented Bergen County's injured since 2004, and he knows this county seat's I-80, Route 4 and Route 17 corridors, its historic Hackensack River bridges, and the streets around Main Street and Hackensack University Medical Center.

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The pharmacy has duties of its own

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When medication causes harm, attention goes to the prescriber. The last professional to handle it before you did was a pharmacist, and New Jersey sets out specifically what they were required to do.

Before dispensing a new medication, a pharmacist must make reasonable efforts to counsel the patient or their caregiver. The regulation describes what that covers, including the name and description of the drug, the dosage and duration, proper administration and storage, and common adverse or severe side effects, interactions and contraindications, together with how to avoid them and what to do if they occur. The offer to counsel may be made by pharmacy staff, but the counselling itself must be given by a pharmacist. Where the patient is not physically present, the offer must be made by telephone or in writing on a separate document accompanying the prescription. The provision that matters most in a claim is recent. A pharmacist must document at the time of dispensing whether counselling was provided or refused. That creates a record, which converts a question that used to come down to competing recollections into something checkable. Separately, the pharmacist in charge has an express duty to ensure the pharmacy is staffed by sufficient competent personnel for its size and complexity, and that policies on accurate dispensing and labelling exist and are followed. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

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Injuries we handle

Medical negligence claims we handle

Medication harm can involve the prescriber, the pharmacy, or both.

yes Accident Facts

The points in the chain where medication goes wrong

Each stage generates a record, which is why these claims are more provable than most.

Entry and processing

Where a prescription is entered into a pharmacy system, and where a misread or a mistyped strength enters the chain.

What the record shows: the pharmacy's own dispensing record, which captures what was entered and by whom.

Dispensing and labelling

The physical product, its strength, and the directions printed on the label, which is what a patient actually follows.

What the record shows: the label and the container. Keep both, because they are the most direct evidence of what was supplied.

Staffing and supervision

Whether the pharmacy had sufficient competent personnel for its volume and complexity when your prescription was filled.

What the record shows: a pattern rather than an incident. The pharmacist in charge has an express duty on staffing and on dispensing policies.

Prescribing

Drug, strength, quantity and directions, together with whatever the prescriber knew about your existing medications and allergies.

What the record shows: the prescription itself, which is the benchmark everything downstream is measured against.

Interaction checking

Systems that flag conflicts with other medications on your profile, and the professional judgment applied to any alert.

What the record shows: whether an alert was generated and what was done about it. Overridden alerts are recorded.

Counselling

Reasonable efforts to counsel before dispensing a new medication, performed by a pharmacist rather than by other staff.

What the record shows: whether counselling was provided or refused, which pharmacists are required to document at the time of dispensing.

In every one of these the pharmacy holds the record. Requesting your complete dispensing history early is the practical first step.

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What A Pharmacist Must Do

Four requirements worth knowing

Confirm current provisions, because the counselling rule has been amended.

Counsel on new medications

Before dispensing a new medication, a pharmacist must make reasonable efforts to counsel the patient or caregiver, covering the drug, dosage, administration and adverse effects.

A pharmacist must do it

The offer may be made by pharmacy personnel, but the counselling itself must be performed by a pharmacist, or an intern or extern under immediate personal supervision.

Absent patients are still owed the offer

Where the patient is not physically present, the offer to counsel must be made by telephone or in writing on a separate document accompanying the prescription.

It has to be documented

A pharmacist must record at the time of dispensing whether counselling was provided or refused, which creates a checkable record rather than a recollection.

Keep the container, the label and any printed information you were given. They are the most direct evidence of what was actually supplied to you. For how negligence claims work statewide, see the medical malpractice practice area page.

Beyond The Individual Error

Two claims a pharmacy record can support

One about the transaction, one about how the pharmacy was being run.

The dispensing itself

Whether the drug, strength and directions matched the prescription, whether an interaction alert was generated and how it was handled, and whether the required counselling occurred. All of that sits in the pharmacy's own system, and the counselling documentation requirement means there is now a contemporaneous entry rather than an argument about what was said at a counter months earlier.

Whether the pharmacy was properly run

The pharmacist in charge is required to ensure the pharmacy is staffed by sufficient competent personnel in keeping with its size, scope and complexity, that accurate records are kept, and that policies on accurate dispensing and labelling exist and are followed. Where an error occurred against a background of chronic understaffing or ignored procedures, that is a claim about the business rather than about one person having a bad afternoon.

Know Before You Call

Three rules about medication claims

Two regulatory, one procedural. Confirm current provisions before relying on them.

N.J.A.C. 13:39-7.21

Counselling on new medications

Before dispensing a new medication a pharmacist must make reasonable efforts to counsel the patient or caregiver, covering matters including the drug, dosage and duration, administration and storage, and common adverse effects, interactions and contraindications. Counselling must be performed by a pharmacist, and whether it was provided or refused must be documented at the time of dispensing.

N.J.A.C. 13:39-6.2

The pharmacist in charge and staffing

Every pharmacy must have a pharmacist in charge who is present sufficiently to ensure the pharmacy is staffed by sufficient competent personnel for its size, scope and complexity, that accurate records of medication received and dispensed are maintained, and that policies on accurate dispensing and labelling are in place and followed.

N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27

The affidavit of merit applies

A claim of professional negligence against a licensed practitioner or facility requires an affidavit from an appropriately credentialed professional within 60 days of the defence answer, with one possible extension. Whether that reaches a particular pharmacy claim should be assessed at the outset rather than assumed either way.

The two year deadline, the discovery rule and how claims against public or federally funded providers differ are covered on the medical malpractice practice area page and the Garfield personal injury page.

What to keep and request

Physical evidence first, records second.

Keep the container and label

Do not return them to the pharmacy. They are the most direct evidence of what was supplied, at what strength, with what directions.

Keep any remaining medication

Where the wrong drug was dispensed, the tablets themselves establish it. Store them safely and do not dispose of them.

Request your dispensing history in writing

The pharmacy holds a complete record of what was entered, dispensed, flagged and counselled. Ask for all of it rather than a summary.

Get the original prescription

From the prescriber. It is the benchmark against which everything the pharmacy did is measured.

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James Vasquez

Antes de que James Vasquez representara a su primera persona lesionada, se sentaba al otro lado de la mesa. Como exfiscal y abogado de defensa de aseguradoras, pasó años aprendiendo exactamente cómo se ganan y se pierden estos casos.

Ahora lo usa a su favor. Cuando los ajustadores y los abogados contrarios se enfrentan a James, se enfrentan a alguien que ha leído su manual, ha litigado en sus tribunales y sabe con precisión dónde se quiebran sus argumentos.

Con sede en Clifton y sirviendo a los condados de Passaic, Morris y Essex, su firma le brinda a cada cliente la atención personal de James, respaldada por un equipo que conoce su expediente a fondo.