Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and are required to act with a high degree of skill, diligence and care. But, as with all professionals attorneys make mistakes.

Not all errors made by attorneys are legal malpractice. To prove legal negligence, the aggrieved must show the duty, breach of duty, causation, malpractice attorney and damage. Let's look at each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their education and experience to treat patients and not to cause harm to others. A patient's legal right to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your attorney will determine if the actions of your doctor breached the duty of care and if the breach caused injury or illness.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional you hired owed the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable skill and care. Establishing that this relationship existed could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient, eyewitness statements and experts from doctors with similar qualifications, experience and education.

Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is often called negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable individual would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also show that the breach by the defendant directly caused your injury or loss. This is known as causation, and your attorney will use evidence like your medical documents, witness statements, and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to meet the standards of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty to patients of care that adhere to professional standards in medical practice. If a doctor does not meet these standards and the failure results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence may occur. Typically expert testimony from 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, as well as policies of the institute, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case it is necessary to prove that the doctor violated his or his duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is vital that it is established. If a physician has to take an x-ray of a broken arm, they have to put the arm in a cast and properly set it. If the doctor is unable to complete this task and the patient suffers a permanent loss in the use of the arm, then malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Lawyer malpractice law firm claims are built on the basis of evidence that the attorney made mistakes that resulted in financial losses to the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever the person who was injured can bring legal malpractice actions.

It's important to recognize that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Strategies and mistakes are not usually considered to be malpractice and Malpractice Attorney lawyers have a lot of latitude to make decisions based on their judgments as long as they are reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of a client, so in the event that it is not unreasonable or negligent. Inability to find important facts or documents, such as medical reports or statements of witnesses can be a case of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to include certain defendants or claims, for instance not noticing a survival count in a wrongful-death case or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that if not due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they could have won their case. The claim of malpractice by the plaintiff will be dismissed when it isn't proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney's actions have caused actual financial losses to win a legal malpractice lawsuit. In a lawsuit, this must be proven with evidence such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and client. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the most common kinds of malpractice are failing 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 or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust funds with attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of the case, or failing to communicate with clients.

In the majority of medical Malpractice attorney cases, the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. They compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, including medical and hospital bills, the cost of equipment that aids in recovery, and loss of wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages like discomfort and pain and loss of enjoyment their lives, and emotional stress.

In many legal malpractice cases there are claims for punitive or compensatory damages. The former compensates victims for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to discourage future misconduct by the defendant.