Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are required to fulfill a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and are required to act with diligence, skill and care. But, as with all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

A mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove duty, breach, causation and damages. Let's review each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take the oath of using their skill and training to treat patients and not causing further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and whether these violations resulted in your injury or illness.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional was bound by the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. Establishing that this relationship existed could require evidence like your records of your doctor-patient relationship, eyewitness statements and experts from doctors with similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of care in their area of expertise. This is usually known as negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must also show that the breach by the defendant directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is called causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence like your medical or patient records, witness testimony, and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care was the primary cause of injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet those standards, and the failure results in an injury and/or medical malpractice, then negligence may occur. Typically, expert testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of care should be in a particular situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also determine what doctors are required to do for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it must be proven 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 called the causation component, and it is crucial that it is established. For example when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor must set the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor was unable to do this and the patient suffered an unavoidable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims are built on the basis of evidence that the attorney made mistakes that resulted in financial losses to the client. For example when a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to know that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Planning and strategy errors aren't usually considered to be a sign of malpractice. Attorneys have a broad choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions so long as they're rational.

The law also allows attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery for a client in the event that the decision was not arbitrary or negligence. Failure to uncover important details or documents, such as medical reports or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice attorneys. Other examples of malpractice include a inability to include certain claims or defendants for example, like forgetting to submit a survival count in a wrongful death case or the consistent and extended inability to communicate with clients.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that, if it weren't the lawyer's negligence they would have prevailed. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses incurred by the actions of an attorney. In a lawsuit, this needs to be proved with evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as proximate causation.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the most common errors include: not meeting the deadline or statute of limitations; failing to conduct an investigation into a conflict in cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's circumstances; and breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account with the attorney's personal accounts, mishandling a case and not communicating with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. They compensate the victim for the out-of-pocket expenses and losses, like hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment needed to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. Victims are also able to claim non-economic damages, such as pain and discomfort or loss of enjoyment in their lives, and emotional suffering.

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for malpractice lawsuit compensatory and punitive damages. The first compensates the victim for the damages due to the negligence of the attorney while the latter is meant to prevent future mistakes by the defendant's side.