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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

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

Duty

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to apply their education and expertise to treat patients and not to cause further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty to care and if these breaches caused injury or illness.

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

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their area of expertise. This is commonly known as negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did with what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the defendant's breach directly contributed to your injury or loss. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will use evidence, such as your doctor/patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony, to demonstrate that the defendant's inability 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 that corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the level of care in any given situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also help define what doctors must perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is vital that it be established. If a doctor is required to obtain an xray of an injured arm, they must put the arm in a casting and correctly place it. If the doctor is unable to do this and the patient suffers a permanent loss of the use of their arm, malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Lawyer malpractice claims are based on evidence that a lawyer made mistakes that resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, leading to the case being lost forever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to recognize that not all errors made by lawyers are considered to be malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes aren't usually considered to be a sign of malpractice law firms. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion to make decisions as long as they're able to make them in a reasonable manner.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys considerable leeway to fail to conduct discovery on the behalf of clients, so in the event that it is not negligent or unreasonable. Failing to discover important details or documents like medical reports or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain claims or defendants such as failing to include a survival count in a wrongful death case, or the repeated and prolonged inability to contact the client.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff must prove that, if not due to the lawyer's negligent behavior, they would have prevailed. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be rejected. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice lawsuit. In a lawsuit, this needs to be demonstrated using evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and client. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the harm caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is referred to as proximate causation.

Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the most common errors include: not meeting an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to conduct an examination of a conflict on an issue; applying the law in a way that is not appropriate to the client's circumstances; and breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust funds with an attorney's personal accounts) and mishandling a case, and not communicating with the client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as losses, such as medical and hospitals bills, costs of equipment to aid recovery, and lost wages. Victims are also able to claim non-economic damages like discomfort and pain and loss of enjoyment their lives, and emotional distress.

In many legal malpractice cases, there are lawsuits for punitive as well as compensatory damages. The first is meant to compensate the victim for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney while the latter is meant to prevent future mistakes on the defendant's part.