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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary responsibilities to their clients and they are expected act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

The mistakes made by an attorney constitutes malpractice lawyer. To prove legal malpractice, an aggrieved person must demonstrate the breach of duty, duty, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each one of these aspects.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to use their skills and experience to treat patients and not causing further harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries suffered from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if the breach resulted in your injury or illness.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer must to prove that a medical professional had an agreement with you, in which they had a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with an acceptable level of competence and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors who have similar education, experience, and training.

Your lawyer will also have to establish that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of 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 individual would do in the same situation.

In addition, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly resulted in injury or loss to you. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your doctor or patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure adhere to the standard of care was the direct reason for the loss or injury to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails meet these standards and that failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert testimonials from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications or experience can help determine the quality of care for a specific situation. State and federal laws, as well as institute policies, define what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.

To win a malpractice case it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation factor and it is vital that it be established. For instance when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor has to properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the physician failed to perform this task and the patient was left with an unavoidable loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For instance, 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 can bring legal malpractice actions.

It is important to understand that not all errors made by lawyers constitute malpractice. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys are given a lot of latitude in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery for a client, so long as the decision was not arbitrary or a result of negligence. Failure to uncover important details or documents, such as medical reports or statements of witnesses can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as failing to make a survival claim in a wrongful-death case or the consistent and persistent inability to contact the client.

It's also important to keep in mind that it has to be proven that if it weren't the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. This is why it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice case, a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses caused by the actions of the attorney. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit by utilizing evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney or billing records, and other records. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is called proximate causation.

Malpractice can occur in many different ways. The most frequent types of malpractice include failing to meet a deadline, including the statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence check on the case, not applying the law to the client's situation, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account with the attorney's personal accounts as well as failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

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

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