Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are required to act with diligence, care and ability. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

A mistake made by an attorney can be considered an act of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the person who was hurt must prove duty, breach of duty, causation, and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to use their knowledge and expertise to cure patients, not causing further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained due to medical Malpractice Attorney is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine if your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and whether these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer will need to show that a medical professional had an official relationship with you in which they had a fiduciary obligation to exercise a reasonable level of competence and care. Establishing that this relationship existed may require evidence, such as the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their area of expertise. This is often described as negligence. Your attorney will compare what the defendant did with what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also prove that the defendant's breach directly contributed to your injury or loss. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence, such as your doctor/patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant's inability to comply with the standard of care was the primary cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that reflect the standards of medical professional practice. If a physician fails to meet these standards, and the failure results in an injury that is medically negligent, negligence could result. Typically, expert testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training or certifications will help determine what the appropriate standard of treatment should be in a specific situation. State and federal laws as well as institute policies also determine what doctors should do for certain types of patients.

In order to win a malpractice claim it must be established that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that the violation was a direct reason for an injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation component and it is essential that it is established. For instance, if a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor must properly set the arm and then place it in a cast for malpractice attorney proper healing. If the doctor failed to do so and the patient suffered a permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims founded on the evidence that the lawyer made mistakes that led to financial losses for the client. Legal malpractice claims can be filed by the person who was injured when, for instance, the attorney fails to file the lawsuit within the statutes of limitations and the case being thrown out forever.

It is important to understand that not all errors made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not generally considered to be malpractice attorneys are given a lot of latitude to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys the right to perform discovery on the behalf of clients, so long as it was not negligent or unreasonable. Inability to find important information or documents, such as witness statements or medical reports could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice lawyer include a failure to add certain claims or defendants such as failing to file a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the frequent and persistent inability to communicate with a client.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that, if not due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they could have won their case. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be dismissed in the event that it is not proved. This makes it difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice lawsuit, a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses caused by the actions of an attorney. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be proven through evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and client. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate causation.

The causes of malpractice vary. The most frequent errors include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; not conducting the necessary conflict checks on an instance; applying the law in a way that is not appropriate to the client's situation; or breaking a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account with the attorney's own accounts or malpractice attorney handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.

In the majority of medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages. These compensations compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and expenses like medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery and lost wages. In addition, the victims can be able to claim non-economic damages such as pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The first compensates the victim for the losses caused by the negligence of the attorney while the latter is designed to discourage future malpractice on the part of the defendant.