Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are required to conduct themselves with diligence, care and expertise. Attorneys make mistakes, as do other professional.

Every mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove the breach of duty, duty, causation and damages. Let's take a look at each of these components.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to apply their skill and training to treat patients, not cause additional harm. The duty of care is the foundation for a patient's right to compensation for injuries caused by medical negligence. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty to care and if the breach resulted in your injury or illness.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer has to demonstrate that a medical professional had an legal relationship with you and have a fiduciary obligation to act with an acceptable level of skill and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence such as your doctor-patient records eyewitness accounts and expert testimony from doctors who have similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer will also have to demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of care in not adhering to the accepted standards in their field. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will compare the defendant's behavior to what a reasonable individual would take in the same scenario.

Then, your lawyer has to show that the defendant's breach of duty directly caused the loss or injury you suffered. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will use evidence like your medical or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's failure to meet the standards of care was the sole cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of treatment to his patients that conforms to the highest standards of medical practice. If a doctor does not meet these standards and that failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, expertise, certifications and experience will help determine what the appropriate standard of care is in a particular circumstance. Federal and state laws, along with policies of the institute, help define what doctors are expected to provide for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation component and it is crucial that it is established. If a doctor is required to obtain an xray of a broken arm, they must put the arm in a cast and correctly place it. If the doctor failed to do this and the patient was left with permanent loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice lawsuit claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's errors caused financial losses to the client. For example the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever the person who was injured could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to know that not all mistakes by lawyers are considered to be malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes are not typically considered to be negligence. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion in making decisions as long as they're able to make them in a reasonable manner.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys the right to perform discovery on the behalf of their clients, as long as the action was not unreasonable or negligent. Inability to find 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, such as failing to include a survival count for wrongful death cases, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff must prove that if not due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they would have won their case. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice will be dismissed if it's not proved. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's essential to choose an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice suit. This should be proved in a lawsuit by utilizing evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney as well as billing records and other records. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as the proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the most common mistakes include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; failing to perform an examination of a conflict on cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account with an attorney's own accounts, mishandling a case and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

In most medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. These compensations compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as losses, such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may seek non-economic damages, like pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and emotional suffering.

In many legal malpractice cases, there are lawsuits for punitive as well as compensatory damages. The first compensates the victim for losses due to the negligence of the attorney and the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice by the defendant's side.