When no one will take your medical malpractice case

What do you do when no one will take your medical malpractice case?

Here's a summary of what went wrong and hopefully I can get some expert advice:

My mother went to a dentist to get lumineers. She's 55 years old. Her teeth were in bad condition and she went through a lot of procedures in order to get the lumineers. Teeth were pulled out. Implants were put in. Teeth were whitened, etc. The dentist explained that with lumineers there would be no pain, no drilling, no shaving, etc. They were only going to place a thing strip across her teeth and that was it. The procedure was supposed to be reversible.

When she was finally ready to get her lumineers, she told the dentist that some of her front teeth were very sensitive and they were hurting her. He injected her with two shots to numb her mouth. It is because of this that my mother did not feel when the dentist began to shave her teeth. He changed the whole procedure without consulting her first or having her sign anything, and instead of placing lumineers, he ended up placing veneers.

My mother was mortified to find out he had shaved all her front teeth to look like that of a shark, and while the veneers would have covered that, she's 55 years old and thus more than likely her veneers can fall off. She was afraid to go back to them for fear they might ruin her even more. You see, this wasn't the first time they had messed up. One time they hurt her pretty bad when they forcefully tried to remove an implant by yanking on it with all their weight instead of twisting it off. The force caused them to slip and they accidentally hit her lip and busted it. She was in pain for days and her mouth was swollen. The implant was pulled out enough to where a couple of days later, with all the swelling, it fell out by itself. They wrote down on their medical notes that the implant fell of it's own accord. No mention of how they had tried to forcefully yank it out.

So she went to another dentist instead. He did x-rays on her and found that the first dentist had neglected to do many things before placing the veneers on her. Not only that, but he confirmed he had made a mess out of my mothers mouth.

So my mother decided to file a lawsuit. With that, she was able to obtain her medical records and noted that in many cases, someone at the dentists office had forged her initials. Unfortunately, the lawyer said that although we had a good case, he could no longer represent her because it would cost more to sue than it would to compensate her. We have since then been looking for a lawyer, but everyone else says the same, that the case costs more than what it's worth.

One lawyer explained to me that the reason for that is that if we were to hire an expert that charged $20,000 and our case was worth $20,000, then it we'd be back in the same spot. However, isn't the other side supposed to pay for that if we are able to prove they were negligent in their work?

So now, what do we do? We tried filing for a civil lawsuit, but they claim the case is worth more than $10,000 so we have to go to a federal court, but the federal court says we need to have a lawyer. We can't get a lawyer to represent us, so what can my mother do to get her medical expenses paid? She paid over $20,000 for this, not to mention she lost about $5000 for not going to work because she was in pain, not to mention all the other medical expenses she had to pay to re-fix her teeth. I mean, why in the world would the dentist allow her to whiten her teeth a month before he shaves them off???!!!

And why can't we file a lawsuit by ourselves if a lawyer won't represent us?

Please help because we are running out of time to file this suit. We have a couple of more months before it becomes too late to sue.

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that the right to self represent has long been recognized by the Federal Courts and the States in USA. The First Congress enacted and President Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789. In Section 35 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 it is provided that a person can plead and manage one's case.

AFF