Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are required to fulfill a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, and are required to act with skill, diligence and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.

There are many mistakes made by attorneys are a result of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense, the aggrieved must show duty, breach of obligation, causation, as well as damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to use their knowledge and expertise to cure patients, not causing further harm. The duty of care is the foundation for the right of patients to receive compensation if they are injured by medical negligence. Your attorney can assist you determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and whether these breaches resulted in injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional owed you the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable competence and care. The proof of this relationship may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient, eyewitness statements and experts from doctors with similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the standards of practice that are accepted in their area of expertise. This is often called negligence. Your attorney will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the defendant's breach directly caused your loss or injury. This is known as causation, and your attorney will use evidence like your doctor-patient reports, witness statements and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to live up to the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of treatment to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor does not adhere to these standards and the result is an injury that is medically negligent, negligence could occur. Typically expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, expertise, certifications and experience will aid in determining what the best standard of medical care should be in a specific situation. State and federal laws as well as institute policies also help determine what doctors are required to perform for specific types of patients.

In order to win a malpractice claim it must be proven that the doctor violated his or their duty of care, and that the breach was a direct cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation component and it is vital that it be established. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an xray the doctor must set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor fails to do this and the patient loses their use of the arm, then malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims built on the basis of evidence that the lawyer made mistakes that led to financial losses for the client. Legal malpractice claims may be brought by the injured party for example, if the attorney fails to file the lawsuit within the timeframes set by the statute of limitations, which results in the case being forever lost.

However, it's crucial to be aware that not all errors made by lawyers constitute wrong. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not usually considered to be malpractice attorneys have a lot of latitude to make judgement calls so long as they're reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers an enormous amount of discretion to not conduct discovery on behalf of clients in the event that the error was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. Legal malpractice can be caused by failing to discover important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice could be a failure to add certain claims or defendants such as omitting to submit a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the continual and extended inability to communicate with the client.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that if not for the lawyer's careless conduct they would have prevailed. 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. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

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

It can happen in many different ways. The most frequent malpractices include: failing a deadline or statute of limitations; not performing a conflict check on a case; applying the law incorrectly to a client's specific circumstances; and violating the fiduciary obligation (i.e. merging funds from a trust account the attorney's personal accounts, mishandling a case and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

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

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates victims for losses resulting from the attorney's negligence, while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant.