Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the person who was hurt must prove the duty, breach of duty, causation and damages. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to apply their knowledge and expertise to treat patients, and not to cause further harm. A patient's legal right to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if those breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To prove a duty to care, your lawyer will need to demonstrate that a medical professional has a legal relationship with you and had a fiduciary obligation to act with a reasonable level of expertise and care. This can be demonstrated through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records and expert testimony of doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer must also show that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is often referred to as negligence, and your attorney will compare the defendant's behavior to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Then, your lawyer has to prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to the loss or injury you suffered. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence like your medical or patient records, witness testimony, and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant’s failure to adhere to the standard of care was the sole reason for the loss or injury to you.

Breach

A doctor is required to perform a duty of care to his patients which reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet these standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury or medical malpractice, then negligence can occur. Typically the testimony of medical professionals who have similar training, expertise and certifications will help determine what the standard of medical care should be in a specific situation. State and federal laws, along with guidelines from the institute, malpractice help define what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.

To be successful in a malpractice case it must be established that the doctor breached his or her duty to care and that the violation was the sole cause of an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation component and it is crucial that it be established. If a doctor is required to conduct an x-ray examination of a broken arm, they must place the arm in a cast and properly place it. If the doctor did not do so and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are founded on the evidence that the attorney made mistakes that resulted in financial losses for the client. For example when a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever, Malpractice the injured party may bring legal malpractice claims.

However, it's crucial to be aware that not all mistakes made by attorneys are malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice law firm, and attorneys have a lot of latitude to make judgement calls so long as they're reasonable.

The law also grants attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of a client in the event that the decision was not arbitrary or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice is committed by not obtaining crucial documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice include a inability to include certain defendants or claims such as failing to file a survival count in a wrongful death case or the continual and extended failure to communicate with the client.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff must show that if it wasn't for the lawyer's careless conduct, they could have won their case. The claim of malpractice by the plaintiff is deemed invalid in the event that it is not proved. This requirement makes it difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

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

It can happen in many different ways. Some of the most common malpractices include: failing a deadline or statute of limitations; not conducting the necessary conflict checks on an issue; applying the law improperly to a client's specific circumstances; and violating an obligation of fiduciary (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account with an attorney's account as well as not communicating with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as expenses such as medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, the victims can seek non-economic damages, such as suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases often include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The first is meant to compensate victims for losses due to the negligence of the attorney while the latter is designed to prevent future mistakes on the defendant's part.