Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and they must act with diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes, as do other professional.

The mistakes made by attorneys are legal malpractice. To prove legal negligence the person who was hurt must prove obligation, breach of duty, causation and damages. Let's review each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to apply their skills and experience to treat patients, and not to cause further harm. Duty of care is the foundation for patients' right to compensation for injuries caused by medical negligence. Your attorney can help you determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and whether the breach caused injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional owed you an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable competence and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient records and expert testimony of doctors who have similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty of caring in not adhering to the accepted standards of their area of expertise. This is commonly known as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach by the defendant caused direct loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your medical documents, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant's failure to live up to the standards of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor is obligated to patients to perform duties of care that conform to professional standards in medical practice. If a physician fails to meet those standards and fails to do so results in injury, medical malpractice attorney and negligence may occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications or experience can help determine the level of care for a specific situation. State and federal laws and institute policies also help determine what doctors should perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor violated his or her duty of care and that this breach was a direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is essential that it is established. For example an injured arm requires an xray the doctor should properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor was unable to do this and the patient suffered an unavoidable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that a lawyer made mistakes that resulted in financial losses for the client. For example when a lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is important to understand that not all errors made by attorneys are considered to be malpractice. Strategies and mistakes are not usually considered to be malpractice and lawyers have lots of freedom to make judgement calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers considerable latitude to not perform discovery for a client provided that the error was not unreasonable or negligence. Legal malpractice can be triggered through the failure to uncover important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to include certain defendants or malpractice lawsuits claims, such as failing to include a survival count for the case of wrongful death, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it has to be proven that but for the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. This is why it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice lawsuit a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses resulting from the actions of the attorney. In a lawsuit, this needs to be proved with evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and client. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney would 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 most common malpractices include: failing a deadline or statute of limitations; not performing an examination of a conflict on a case; applying the law improperly to a client's circumstances; and breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. the commingling of trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts) or mishandling an instance, Malpractice lawsuits and failing to communicate with clients.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensation damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and expenses like medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to help recover and lost wages. In addition, the victims can be able to claim non-economic damages like suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional distress.

In many legal malpractice cases, there are cases for punitive and compensatory damages. The first is meant to compensate the victim for the damages caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice on the defendant's part.