Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are in a fiduciary position with their clients and are required to behave with care, diligence and competence. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.

Not all mistakes made by an attorney are malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the victim must demonstrate duty, breach of duty, causation and damages. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their training and experience to treat patients and not cause harm to others. A patient's legal right to receive compensation for injuries resulting due to medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your attorney can help you determine if the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and whether these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer has to prove that a medical professional has an agreement with you and were bound by a fiduciary duty to exercise an acceptable level of skill and care. This relationship can be established by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors with similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is usually called negligence. Your attorney will compare what the defendant did with what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must also prove that the defendant's breach directly caused your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will rely on evidence like your medical reports, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure to adhere to the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that adhere to professional medical standards. If a physician fails to meet those standards and fails to do so results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications or experience can help determine the quality of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws, along with institute policies, define what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

To win a malpractice claim, it must be proven that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty of care and Malpractice Lawsuits that the violation was the sole cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation factor and it is essential to prove it. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an x-ray the doctor must fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor failed to perform this task and the patient was left with an unavoidable loss of use of the arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Lawyer malpractice claims are founded on the evidence that the attorney committed mistakes that caused financial losses for the client. For instance, if a lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to realize that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute mistakes that constitute malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes aren't usually considered to be a sign of the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion to make decisions so long as they're in the right place.

Additionally, the law grants attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to conduct a discovery process on the behalf of their clients, as long as it was not unreasonable or negligent. Failing to discover important documents or facts, such as witness statements or medical reports, is a potential example of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to include certain defendants or claims, like forgetting a survival count for wrongful death cases or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff needs to demonstrate that, if it weren't for the lawyer's negligent conduct they would have prevailed. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be rejected. This is why it's difficult to file a legal malpractice claim. Therefore, it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses to win a legal malpractice lawsuit. In a lawsuit, this needs to be proven through evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and client. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is called proximate causation.

The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. Some of the most common errors include: not meeting the deadline or statute of limitations; failing to conduct a conflict check on cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's specific circumstances; and violating a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account an attorney's own accounts or handling a case improperly and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensation damages. These compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, for example medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment that aids in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, victims can be able to claim non-economic damages such as suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.

In many legal malpractice cases there are lawsuits for punitive as well as compensatory damages. The former compensates a victim for losses resulting from the attorney's negligence, while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice attorney by the defendant.