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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients and they must act with diligence, skill and care. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

The mistakes made by an attorney are a result of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the person who was hurt must prove duty, breach of duty, causation, and damage. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their training and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the concept of duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if the breach resulted in injury or illness.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional you hired owed the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable competence and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient eyewitness accounts and expert testimony from doctors with similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the standards of practice that are accepted in their area of expertise. This is commonly referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

In addition, your lawyer must demonstrate that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to injury or loss to you. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will use evidence including your doctor's or patient documents, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant’s failure to comply with the standard of care was the main cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of care to his patients that conforms to the highest standards of medical practice. If a physician fails to meet the standards, and the failure results in an injury and/or medical malpractice, then negligence could result. Expert testimonials from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates, skills and experience can help determine the appropriate level of care in a given situation. Federal and state laws, along with institute policies, help determine what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation component and it is vital to establish. For instance when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor must set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor failed to complete the procedure and the patient suffered permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For example, if a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever the person who was injured could bring legal malpractice law firm lawsuits.

It's important to recognize that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes are not always considered to be negligence. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion to make decisions so long as they're reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to conduct a discovery process on the behalf of their clients, as long as it was not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice can be triggered by not obtaining crucial documents or facts, like medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include failure to add certain claims or defendants, such as forgetting to make a survival claim in a wrongful death lawsuit, or the repeated and long-running failure to contact clients.

It is also important to remember the necessity for the plaintiff to demonstrate that, if it weren't due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they would have won their case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses in order to prevail in a legal malpractice suit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit with evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other records. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is called proximate causation.

The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. The most frequent malpractices include: failing an expiration date or statute of limitations; not conducting a conflict check on an issue; applying the law improperly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or mishandling an instance, and failing to communicate with a client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically involve claims for compensatory damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, for example hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment that aids in recovery, and loss of wages. In addition, victims may be able to claim non-economic damages such as pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for losses resulting from the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.