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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are required to behave with diligence, care and competence. Attorneys make mistakes, just like any other professional.

A mistake made by an attorney constitutes legal malpractice. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove the breach of duty, obligation, causation, and damage. Let's look at each of these components.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to apply their expertise and knowledge to cure patients, not cause additional harm. Duty of care is the foundation for the right of patients to receive compensation for injuries caused by medical malpractice. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of medical care and if these breaches caused injury or illness.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer needs to demonstrate that a medical professional had an official relationship with you in which they were bound by a fiduciary duty to act with an acceptable level of skill and care. This can be demonstrated by eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient reports and expert testimony from doctors with similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care in not adhering to the accepted standards of their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence. Your attorney will examine the defendant's actions to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also prove that the defendant's breach directly caused your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care was the direct cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that conform to professional medical standards. If a doctor fails live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, medical malpractice and negligence may occur. Typically the testimony of medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will assist in determining what the minimum standard of care is in a specific situation. State and federal laws, along with guidelines from the institute, help define what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or their duty of care, and that this breach was a direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component, and it is vital to establish. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an xray, the doctor should properly set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor fails to do this and the patient is left with a permanent loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may be at play.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims are built on the basis of evidence that a lawyer made errors that resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is crucial to realize that not all mistakes by attorneys constitute malpractice. Strategies and planning errors do not usually constitute the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion in making decisions so long as they're in the right place.

The law also allows lawyers the right to refuse to conduct discovery for a client provided that the failure was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. Inability to find important facts or documents, such as medical or witness statements or medical reports, could be an instance of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the inability to add certain defendants or claims, like not noticing a survival count in wrongful death cases, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to remember the fact that the plaintiff must prove that if not the lawyer's negligence, they could have won their case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice law firm lawsuits difficult. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.

Damages

In order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses caused by the actions of an attorney. In a lawsuit, this must be proven through evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. Some of the most common malpractices include: failing the deadline or statute of limitations; not performing the necessary conflict checks on cases; applying law improperly to a client's particular situation; and breaking a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust funds with an attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of the case, and not communicating with clients.

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

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for losses caused by the attorney's negligence, while the latter is designed to deter any future malpractice committed by the defendant.