Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are required to act with care, diligence and expertise. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damage. Let's examine each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Doctors and other medical professionals swear by their training and experience to help patients and not cause harm to others. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the concept of duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine if your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and if those breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To prove a duty to care, your lawyer has to establish that a medical professional had a legal relationship with you in which they were bound by a fiduciary duty to perform their duties with an acceptable level of skill and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient reports and expert testimony from doctors who have similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also need to show that the medical professional violated their duty to care by not adhering to the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will compare the defendant's behavior with what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also show that the defendant's negligence caused direct injury or loss. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence, such as your doctor/patient documents, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant's failure to adhere to the standard of care was the direct cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of treatment to his patients that corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor does not meet those standards and this results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications as well as experience and qualifications can help determine the level of care for a specific situation. State and federal laws, as well as institute policies, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain types of patients.

To win a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or their duty of care, and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is vital to establish. If a physician has to obtain an xray of a broken arm, they must put the arm in a cast and properly place it. If the doctor failed to do so and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that shows the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance, if a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever and the victim can bring legal malpractice actions.

However, it's crucial to be aware that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Errors involving strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice and lawyers have a lot of latitude in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery for a client in the event that the error was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Inability to find important details or documents like medical reports or statements of witnesses can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain claims or defendants, such as forgetting to submit a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the consistent and persistent inability to communicate with the client.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that, if it weren't the lawyer's negligence they could have won their case. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be denied. This makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.

Damages

In order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit, plaintiffs must show financial losses that result from the actions of an attorney. In a lawsuit, this must be demonstrated using evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is called proximate causation.

Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include failing to meet a deadline, for example, the statute of limitations, failing to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence check on a case, improperly applying the law to the client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account with an attorney's account or handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. The compensations pay for expenses out of pocket and losses such as hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment to aid in recovery and lost wages. Victims can also claim non-economic damages, such as discomfort and malpractice pain and loss of enjoyment their lives, as well as emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for losses resulting from the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.