Melissa Rivers has filed a lawsuit against the doctors who were treating her mother when she died.

The multi-million-dollar claim states that had the doctors not been so busy fawning over Joan Rivers during a procedure on her throat, she would have been alive today.

Melissa Rivers says filing the claim against the New York clinic is one of the most difficult decisions she's had to make.

She says the level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behaviour is shocking and almost incomprehensible.

Joan Rivers died in September, a week after undergoing a routine surgery on her throat.