Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary responsibilities to their clients and they must behave with diligence, skill and care. However, like all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.

Some mistakes made by lawyers are malpractice. To establish legal malpractice, the aggrieved party must show the breach of duty, duty, causation and damages. Let's look at each one of these aspects.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath that they will use their expertise and knowledge to treat patients, and not cause additional harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice hinges on the concept of duty of care. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if those breaches resulted in your injury or illness.

To prove a duty to care, your lawyer has to show that a medical professional had an agreement with you and owed you a fiduciary responsibility to perform their duties with an acceptable level of competence and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence such as the records of your doctor and patient or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors who have similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer will also need to show that the medical professional breached their duty of caring by not adhering to the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence, and your attorney will examine the defendant's actions to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove 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 show that the defendant's failure adhere to the standard of care was the primary reason for the loss or injury to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients which is in line with professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to adhere to these standards and the result is an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Expert testimonials from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates, skills and experience can help determine the standard of care in a particular situation. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors should perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit (visit your url) the case must be proved that the doctor violated his or their duty of care, and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation component, and it is vital to establish. For example an injured arm requires an xray the doctor must set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor is unable to complete this task and the patient loses their use of the arm, malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For example the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to realize that not all errors made by attorneys constitute wrong. Strategies and mistakes aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys are given the ability in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of a client as long as the reason for the delay was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. Legal malpractice can be caused through the failure to uncover important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are a failure to add certain defendants or claims for example, like forgetting to submit a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit, or the repeated and persistent inability to contact the client.

It is also important to remember the necessity for the plaintiff to show that if it wasn't for the lawyer's careless conduct, they could have won their case. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice is deemed invalid when it isn't proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must demonstrate that the lawyer's actions led to actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be demonstrated using evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm that was caused by the attorney's negligence. This is known as proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. The most frequent mistakes are: failing to meet a deadline or statute of limitations; not performing the necessary conflict checks on cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's specific circumstances; and violating a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust account funds with personal attorney accounts) or a mishandling of an instance, and not communicating with the client.

Medical malpractice lawyers suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These compensations compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and losses such as medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain, loss of enjoyment of their lives, and emotional suffering.

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