Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients and they must act with skill, diligence and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.

Every mistake made by an attorney can be considered an act of malpractice. To establish legal malpractice, the aggrieved person must demonstrate that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and Malpractice lawsuits damages. Let's examine each of these aspects.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear to apply their education and experience to help patients and not to cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries sustained due to medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney will determine if the actions of your doctor breached the duty of medical care and if these breaches resulted in injury or illness.

Your lawyer must demonstrate that the medical professional owed you an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable competence and care. This can be proved by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient reports and expert testimony from doctors with similar education, experience, and training.

Your lawyer must also show that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not living up to the accepted standards of practice in their field. This is typically known as negligence. Your attorney will compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the breach of the defendant's duty led directly to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your medical or patient documents, witness testimony and expert testimony, to demonstrate that the defendant’s failure to comply with the standard of care was the sole cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients that conforms to the highest standards of medical practice. If a doctor fails adhere to these standards and the failure results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence may occur. Typically the testimony of medical professionals who have the same training, qualifications and experience, as well as certifications and certificates will help determine what the appropriate standard of treatment should be in a particular situation. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors are required to perform for specific types of patients.

In order to win a malpractice claim, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation element and it is essential to establish. For example when a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor must set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor did not do this and the patient was left with a permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that the attorney's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For instance, if a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to recognize that not all mistakes by attorneys are considered to be malpractice. Strategy and planning errors are not always considered to be the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion to make decisions, as long as they're reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys the right to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of a client as long as the error was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. Legal malpractice can be committed when a lawyer fails to find important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for a wrongful-death case or the recurrent failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to consider the necessity for the plaintiff to show that if it wasn't the lawyer's negligence, 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 show that the attorney's actions have caused actual financial losses in order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. In a lawsuit, this must be proved with evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the client and attorney. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the attorney's negligence. This is known as proximate cause.

Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the most common malpractices include: failing an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to conduct the necessary conflict checks on an issue; applying the law in a way that is not appropriate to the client's situation; or breaking the fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account the attorney's personal accounts or handling a case improperly and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.

In most medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. These damages compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and expenses like hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages like pain and discomfort, loss of enjoyment of their lives, as well as emotional suffering.

In many legal malpractice cases, there are claims for punitive and compensatory damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the damages caused by negligence on the part of the attorney while the latter is meant to prevent future mistakes on the defendant's part.