Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are required to behave with diligence, care and competence. But, as with all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

Every mistake made by an attorney constitutes malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an aggrieved party must show duty, breach, causation and damage. Let's look at each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear the oath of using their expertise and knowledge to treat patients and not causing further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the concept of the duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine if your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and if the breach caused injuries or illness to you.

Your lawyer must demonstrate that the medical professional you hired owed the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence, such as the records of your doctor and patient or eyewitness testimony, as well as expert testimony from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer will also have to demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of caring by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of their field. This is usually called negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to damage or loss to you. This is referred to as causation, and your attorney will rely on evidence such as your doctor-patient documents, witness statements, and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure to live up to the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty to patients of care that adhere to professional medical standards. If a doctor fails live up to those standards and the failure causes injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications and skills can help determine the appropriate level of care in a particular situation. Federal and state laws, as well as institute policies, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain types of patients.

To win a malpractice case the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or duty of care and malpractice that the breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation element and it is essential that it is established. If a doctor has to perform an x-ray on an injured arm, they must place the arm in a cast and correctly set it. If the doctor failed to do this and the patient suffered permanent loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For example, if a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever the person who was injured can bring legal malpractice actions.

However, it's important to recognize that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys are given plenty of discretion to make judgment calls as long as they're reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys the right to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of clients in the event that the failure was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. The failure to discover crucial information or documents like witness statements or medical reports could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain defendants or claims, malpractice such as forgetting to include a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the consistent and long-running inability to contact a client.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that, if it weren't the lawyer's negligence they could have won their case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice case, the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses that result from the actions of the attorney. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be proved with evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and the client. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate causation.

Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include failing to meet a deadline, for example, the statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a check on conflicts or other due diligence check on a case, improperly applying the law to a client's case and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. merging funds from a trust account with an attorney's account, mishandling a case and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice lawsuit lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. The compensations pay for out-of-pocket expenses as well as expenses such as medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to help recover and lost wages. In addition, victims can be able to claim non-economic damages like pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.