Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are in a fiduciary position with their clients and are expected to conduct themselves with diligence, care and expertise. But, as with all professionals attorneys make mistakes.

The mistakes made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To prove negligence in a legal sense the victim must demonstrate duty, breach of obligation, causation, and damages. Let's review each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath that they will use their skill and training to cure patients, not to cause further harm. The duty of care is the foundation for a patient's right to compensation if they are injured by medical malpractice. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of medical care and whether these violations resulted in injury or illness.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional you hired owed an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable skill and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors with similar education, experience, 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 field. This is usually referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did with what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also show that the defendant's negligence directly caused your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your medical or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant's inability to meet the standards of care was the primary cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is required to perform a duty of treatment to his patients that corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor does not meet these standards and this causes injury, then medical malpractice law firm and negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications as well as experience and qualifications can help determine the quality of care in a particular situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors are required to perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor violated his or his duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative to prove it. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an xray, the doctor has to properly fix the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor did not do this and the patient was left with a permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For example the lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever the person who was injured could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of wrong. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning are not generally considered to be malpractice and lawyers have a lot of latitude to make judgment calls as long as they're reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys an enormous amount of discretion to not conduct discovery on behalf of clients, so long as the decision was not arbitrary or negligence. Legal malpractice can be caused through the failure to uncover important documents or facts, like medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are a inability to include certain claims or defendants such as omitting to file a survival count in a wrongful death case or the frequent and persistent failure to communicate with the client.

It is also important to consider the fact that the plaintiff needs to prove that if not for the lawyer's careless conduct they could have won their case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice case, the plaintiff must show actual financial losses resulting from the actions of the attorney. This should be proved in a lawsuit through evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney along with billing records and other evidence. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer would have avoided the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as the proximate cause.

The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. Some of the most common malpractices include: failing an expiration date or statute of limitations; not performing a conflict check on cases; applying law improperly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of the case, and failing to communicate with the client.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff will seek compensatory damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, including hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovering, and lost wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages like pain and discomfort and loss of enjoyment their lives, malpractice lawsuit as well as emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former compensates victims for losses resulting from the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.