Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary responsibilities to their clients, and they must act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Not all errors made by attorneys are a result of malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove the breach of duty, duty, causation and damage. Let's review each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to apply their knowledge and expertise to treat patients, and not cause additional harm. The duty of care is the foundation for patients' right to compensation in the event of injury due to medical malpractice. Your lawyer can assist you determine whether or not your doctor's actions breached this duty of care, and if those breaches caused injuries or illness to you.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer must to establish that a medical professional has an agreement with you in which they have a fiduciary obligation to exercise a reasonable level of competence and care. Establishing that this relationship existed could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient, eyewitness statements and experts from doctors with similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer will also need to show that the medical professional breached their duty to care by failing to follow the accepted standards of their area of expertise. This is often called negligence. Your attorney will compare the defendant's behavior to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach by the defendant directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will rely on evidence like your medical documents, witness statements, and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to uphold the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that reflect professional medical standards. If a doctor doesn't meet these standards, and the failure results in an injury that is medically negligent, negligence may occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will help determine what the appropriate standard of care should be in a particular case. Federal and state laws, as well as institute policies, help define what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or duty of care and that this breach was a direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation factor and it is essential that it is established. For instance an injured arm requires an xray the doctor must properly set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor fails to complete this task and the patient is left with a permanent loss of usage of the arm, malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims are based on evidence that the lawyer made mistakes that resulted in financial losses for the client. For example the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is crucial to be aware that not all mistakes made by lawyers constitute mistakes that constitute malpractice. Strategies and mistakes do not typically constitute malpractice, and attorneys have plenty of discretion to make decisions based on their judgments as long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of their clients, so long as the failure was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice lawyer can be caused by not obtaining crucial documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to include certain defendants or claims, such as not noticing a survival count in the case of wrongful death or the inability to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it must be proved that, had it not been the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected when it isn't proven. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the lawyer's actions led to actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. This can be proven in a lawsuit using evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other documentation. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

It can happen in a variety of ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include: failing to meet a deadline, for example, the statute of limitations, failing to perform a conflict check or any other due diligence on the case, not applying law to a client's circumstance and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing trust account funds with personal attorney accounts), mishandling of an instance, and not communicating with the client.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as expenses such as hospital and medical bills, equipment costs to help recover and lost wages. In addition, the victims can claim non-economic damages, such as suffering and suffering or loss of enjoyment life and emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases typically include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for the damages caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is designed to discourage any future malpractice on the part of the defendant.