Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are expected to conduct themselves with care, diligence and ability. Attorneys make mistakes, just like any other professional.

A mistake made by an attorney is malpractice law firm. To prove that legal malpractice has occurred, the aggrieved person must demonstrate that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damages. Let's look at each of these components.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to use their skill and training to treat patients, not to cause further harm. The duty of care is the basis for a patient's right to compensation in the event of injury due to medical negligence. Your attorney can assist you determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and whether those breaches caused injuries or illness to you.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer needs to prove that a medical professional had an official relationship with you, in which they had a fiduciary obligation to act with an acceptable level of competence and care. This relationship can be established through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records and expert testimony of doctors with similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not living up to the standards of practice that are accepted in their field. This is often called negligence. Your attorney will examine the defendant's actions with what a reasonable person would do in the same circumstance.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the defendant's negligence caused direct injury or loss. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your doctor-patient reports, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant's inability to meet the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that conform to professional standards in medical practice. If a physician fails to meet those standards, and the result is an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence may occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that possess similar qualifications, training and skills can help determine the standard of care for a specific situation. State and federal laws, as well as policies of the institute, help determine what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.

To win a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor violated his or his duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation factor and it is crucial to prove it. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an xray, the doctor should properly set the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor did not perform this task and the patient was left with an unavoidable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For example, if a lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to recognize that not all errors made by lawyers are a sign of 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 so long as they're rational.

In addition, the law allows attorneys a lot of discretion to conduct a discovery process on a client's behalf, as provided that the decision was not negligent or unreasonable. Failing to discover important details or documents, such as medical or witness statements, is a potential example of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the inability to add certain defendants or claims, such as not noticing a survival count in wrongful death cases or the recurrent failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to note that it has to be proven that if it weren't the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the lawyer's actions led to actual financial losses to win a legal malpractice lawsuit. In a lawsuit, this has to be demonstrated using evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and client. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the damage caused by the attorney's negligence. This is referred to as proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. The most frequent errors include: not meeting an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to conduct an examination of a conflict on a case; applying the law improperly to a client's particular situation; and breaking the fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust account funds with personal attorney accounts) or a mishandling of a case, and not communicating with the client.

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

Legal malpractice cases often involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to deter any future malpractice committed by the defendant.