Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients and they must act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. But, as with all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

Not every mistake made by an attorney constitutes negligence. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove obligation, breach of obligation, causation, and damage. Let's examine each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to apply their skill and training to treat patients, not to cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice rests on the notion of duty of care. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if these breaches caused injury or illness.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer must to demonstrate that a medical professional has a legal relationship with you and have a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with a reasonable level of skill and care. Establishing that this relationship existed may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness testimony, as well as experts from doctors with similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer must also show that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not living up to the accepted standards of care in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable person would do in the same circumstance.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach by the defendant directly caused your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will use evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony, and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to meet the standard of care was the direct cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of care for his patients that corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and that failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically expert testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, qualifications or certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of care should be in a particular circumstance. Federal and state laws and institute policies can also be used to define what doctors must perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative to establish. If a doctor is required to take an x-ray of an injured arm, they have to put the arm in a cast and Malpractice Lawsuit correctly set it. If the doctor is unable to perform this, and the patient loses their use of the arm, malpractice may be at play.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are built on the basis of evidence that the lawyer made mistakes that led to financial losses for the client. For instance the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever the person who was injured may bring legal malpractice claims.

It is crucial to realize that not all mistakes by attorneys are malpractice. Errors involving strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys are given a lot of latitude in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

In addition, the law allows attorneys considerable leeway to fail to conduct discovery on behalf of a client, so in the event that it is not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice lawyers can be committed through the failure to uncover important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, such as failing to include a survival count for an unjustly-dead case or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to consider the fact that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that, if it weren't the lawyer's negligence they would have won their case. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice will be dismissed in the event that it is not proved. This makes it very difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. It's important to choose a seasoned attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice lawsuit suit. This must be shown in a lawsuit through evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other documentation. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is known as proximate cause.

It can happen in a variety of ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include the failure to meet a deadline, such as the statute of limitations, failing to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence check on the case, not applying law to a client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account the attorney's own accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensatory damages. These compensate the victim for the expenses out of pocket and losses, for example medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovery, and loss of wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain as well as loss of enjoyment from their lives, as well as emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for losses resulting from the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.