Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and are required to act with diligence, skill and care. However, like all professionals attorneys make mistakes.

The mistakes made by an attorney are legal malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an victim must prove the breach of duty, duty, causation and damage. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to apply their skills and experience to treat patients and not causing further harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting due to medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine whether or not your doctor's actions breached this duty of care, and whether the breach caused injuries or illness to you.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional in question owed you an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable competence and care. Proving that this relationship existed may require evidence such as your records of your doctor-patient relationship, eyewitness statements and expert testimony from doctors who have similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the standards of practice that are accepted in their area of expertise. This is commonly described as negligence. Your attorney will compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also prove that the defendant's breach caused direct injury or loss. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your medical reports, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's inability to uphold the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of treatment to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet those standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury or medical malpractice, then negligence can occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the quality of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

In order to win a malpractice claim it must be established that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty of care and that this violation was a direct reason for an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation component and it is vital that it be established. For example an injured arm requires an x-ray the doctor has to properly set the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor fails to perform this, and the patient suffers a permanent loss of use of the arm, malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims can be brought by the party who suffered the loss if, for example, the attorney fails to file the lawsuit within the prescribed time and results in the case being forever lost.

It's important to know that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes aren't usually considered to be a sign of the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion to make decisions as long as they're rational.

The law also allows lawyers considerable latitude to not perform discovery for a client, so long as the decision was not arbitrary or negligence. Legal malpractice can be caused when a lawyer fails to find important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of austin malpractice attorney include inability to include certain claims or defendants such as failing to file a survival count in a wrongful death case or the consistent and long-running inability to contact the client.

It is also important to note the necessity for the plaintiff to prove that if not for the lawyer's careless conduct they could have won their case. The plaintiff's claim for Ontario Malpractice Attorney is deemed invalid if it's not proved. This makes it very difficult to bring a legal malpractice claim. It's important to choose a seasoned attorney to represent you.

Damages

In order to prevail in a legal malpractice suit, the plaintiff must show actual financial losses that result from the actions of the attorney. This must be shown in a lawsuit through evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other records. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the most common mistakes include: not meeting the deadline or statute of limitations; failing to perform an examination of a conflict on a case; applying the law improperly to a client's specific circumstances; and violating a fiduciary obligation (i.e. commingling trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of a case, and not communicating with a client.

In the majority of medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for expenses out of pocket and losses, like medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. In addition, the victims can seek non-economic damages, like suffering and suffering or loss of enjoyment life, and emotional stress.

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