Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

Some mistakes made by lawyers are a result of malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party must show obligation, breach, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear the oath of using their knowledge and expertise to treat patients, not cause additional harm. A patient's legal right to be compensated for Malpractice Lawsuit injuries sustained from medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and whether those breaches caused injuries or illness to you.

Your lawyer must establish that the medical professional you hired owed an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable competence and care. The proof of this relationship could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors with similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also have to show that the medical professional violated their duty of care in not adhering to the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is often called negligence, and your attorney will examine the defendant's actions to what a reasonable person would take in the same scenario.

Your lawyer must prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will use evidence like your medical or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care was the main cause of injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is required to perform a duty of care to his patients which reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor does not meet those standards and this causes injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Typically the testimony of medical professionals who have similar training, expertise or certifications will help determine what the standard of care is in a particular situation. State and federal laws, along with guidelines from the institute, help determine what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or their duty of care, and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is essential that it is established. For instance in the event that a damaged arm requires an x-ray the doctor has to properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the physician failed to do so and the patient suffered an unavoidable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims are founded on the evidence that the attorney committed mistakes that caused financial losses for the client. For example the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, leading to the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to realize that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Strategy and planning errors do not usually constitute malpractice. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion in making decisions, as long as they're reasonable.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys considerable leeway to fail to conduct a discovery process on a client's behalf, as provided that the decision was not unreasonable or negligent. Failing to discover important information or documents like witness statements or medical reports or medical reports, could be an instance of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to include certain defendants or claims, malpractice lawsuit like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for the case of wrongful death or the recurrent failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important that it must be proven that, if not for the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. The claim of malpractice by the plaintiff will be rejected if it is not proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses in order to prevail in a legal malpractice suit. In a lawsuit, this must be proven with evidence such as expert testimony and correspondence between the client and attorney. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as the proximate cause.

Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the more common kinds of malpractice are failing to adhere to a deadline, which includes a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence on a case, improperly applying the law to a client's case, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of the case, or failing to communicate with a client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, such as hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovering, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may claim non-economic damages, like pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.

Legal malpractice cases typically include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for the loss resulting from the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to deter any future malpractice committed by the defendant.