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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are required to act with care, diligence and ability. However, like all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

The mistakes made by attorneys are considered to be malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the aggrieved party must prove the duty, breach of duty, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to apply their knowledge and expertise to cure patients, not to cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if those breaches caused injury or illness.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional you hired owed the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. This relationship can be established by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence, and your attorney will assess the conduct of the defendant to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the breach by the defendant directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure to meet the standards of care was the primary cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of care for his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails meet those standards and that failure results in injury, medical malpractice lawyer or negligence could occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the quality of care in any given situation. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to define what doctors must provide for specific kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or their duty of care, and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is crucial to prove it. For example when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor should properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor fails to perform this, and the patient loses their usage of the arm, malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims based on the evidence that the lawyer made mistakes that resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance, if a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to understand malpractice lawsuits that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not usually considered to be malpractice attorneys have a lot of latitude in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys the right to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of clients provided that the error was not unreasonable or negligent. Failing to discover important facts or documents like medical or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to add certain defendants or claims, such as failing to include a survival count for an unjustly-dead case or the recurrent failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important that it has to be proven that if it weren't the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

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

It can happen in a variety of ways. Some of the most common malpractices include: failing a deadline or statute of limitations; not conducting an examination of a conflict on an issue; applying the law incorrectly to a client's situation; or breaking an obligation of fiduciary (i.e. merging funds from a trust account with the attorney's personal accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. They compensate the victim for the out-of-pocket expenses and malpractice lawsuits losses, for example medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment that aids in recovering, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may seek non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment life, and emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases often involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to discourage future misconduct by the defendant.