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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are in a fiduciary position with their clients and are required to conduct themselves with care, diligence and competence. But, as with all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

A mistake made by an attorney is legal malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the victim must demonstrate the breach of duty, duty, causation, and damage. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath that they will use their expertise and knowledge to treat patients, not cause additional harm. A patient's legal right to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice rests on the notion of duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and whether these violations caused you injury or illness.

Your lawyer must demonstrate that the medical professional was bound by the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable skill and care. This relationship can be established by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient records and expert testimony of doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer must also show 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 typically called negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly caused damage or loss to you. This is referred to as causation, and your attorney will rely on evidence like your doctor-patient reports, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant's failure to uphold the standards of care in your case was the direct cause of your loss or injury.

Breach

A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that conform to the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor fails to adhere to these standards and the failure causes injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals with similar training, skills, certifications and experience will assist in determining what the minimum standard of treatment should be in a particular situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also determine what doctors are required to do for specific types of patients.

To win a malpractice claim the evidence must prove that the doctor did not fulfill his or her duty to care and that this violation was the primary cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and Malpractice Claim it is imperative to prove it. If a physician has to perform an x-ray on a broken arm, they have to put the arm in a cast and properly set it. If the doctor failed to complete the procedure and the patient suffered a permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice attorneys claims rely on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's errors caused financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims can be brought by the victim when, for instance, the attorney fails to file the suit within the timeframe of the statute of limitations, which results in the case being permanently lost.

It is important to understand that not all mistakes made by attorneys are malpractice case. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys have lots of freedom in making judgment calls so long as they're reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of a client as long as the reason for the delay was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. The failure to discover crucial information or documents, such as medical reports or statements of witnesses could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice legal include a inability to include certain defendants or claims such as omitting to file a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the continual and persistent failure to communicate with the client.

It's also important to note that it must be established that if it weren't for the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice lawyer will be rejected when it isn't proven. This makes it difficult to bring an action for legal malpractice. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be demonstrated using evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the client and attorney. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is known as proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. Some of the more common kinds of malpractice are the failure to meet a deadline, for example, a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict check or any other due diligence on a case, improperly applying the law to the client's situation, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account with an attorney's own accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice attorney suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, for example medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovery, and loss of wages. Victims can also claim non-economic damages, such as discomfort and pain or loss of enjoyment in their lives, and emotional anxiety.

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates victims for losses caused by the attorney's negligence, while the latter is intended to discourage future misconduct by the defendant.