Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

A mistake made by an attorney is malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an victim must prove that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damage. Let's take a look at each one of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to apply their skills and experience to treat patients and not causing further harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty to care and whether these violations caused injury or illness.

To prove a duty to care, your lawyer needs to demonstrate that a medical professional has an official relationship with you and have a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with a reasonable level of expertise and care. Proving that this relationship existed may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient eyewitness accounts and experts from doctors with similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer must also show 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, and your attorney will assess the conduct of the defendant with what a reasonable person would take in the same scenario.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly caused your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence, such as your doctor/patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to adhere to the standard of care was the main cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet these standards and the failure results in injury, negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training, certifications and experience will help determine what the appropriate standard of care should be in a particular case. State and federal laws and institute policies also determine what doctors should do for certain types of patients.

To win a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation factor and it is imperative to establish. For example an injured arm requires an x-ray, the doctor has to properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor did not perform this task and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever the person who was injured can bring legal malpractice actions.

It is important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers constitute malpractice. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys have the ability to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of their clients, so long as the decision was not arbitrary or negligent. Failure to uncover important documents or facts, such as witness statements or medical reports could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice lawyer include a inability to include certain defendants or claims such as failing to file a survival count in a case of wrongful death or the frequent and persistent failure to contact clients.

It is also important to note the necessity for the plaintiff to prove that if not due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they would have prevailed. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice lawyers will be denied. This requirement makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses caused by an attorney's actions. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit using 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 harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is called proximate causation.

Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include: failing to adhere to a deadline, which includes a statute of limitations, failure to perform a conflict check or other due diligence check on the case, not applying law to a client's situation, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing 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 compensation damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as losses such as hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, the victims can seek non-economic damages, like suffering and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for the loss resulting from the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.