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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are in a fiduciary position with their clients and are required to act with diligence, care and competence. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered an act of malpractice. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove duty, breach of duty, causation, and damage. Let's take a look at each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their training and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice is based on the notion of duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine if the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and whether these breaches resulted in injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional in question owed you the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you could require evidence like the records of your doctor and patient or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors who have similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not adhering to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is typically described as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach by the defendant led directly to your injury or loss. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your doctor-patient documents, witness statements and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's failure to uphold the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of care for his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor doesn't meet the standards, and the failure results in an injury that is medically negligent, negligence may occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications and skills can help determine the level of care in a given situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also help determine what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation component, and it is vital to establish. For example when a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor must place the arm and put it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor fails to perform this, and the patient suffers a permanent loss in the use of their arm, malpractice could be at play.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims built on the basis of evidence that the attorney made errors that resulted in financial losses to the client. For instance the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, leading to the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to know that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Planning and strategy errors are not typically considered to be malpractice. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion in making decisions as long as they're reasonable.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to perform discovery on the behalf of their clients, as long as it was not negligent or unreasonable. The failure to discover crucial documents or facts, such as medical reports or statements of witnesses can be a case of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, such as not noticing a survival count in the case of wrongful death or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff needs to prove that if not the lawyer's negligence they could have won their case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice claims complicated. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses in order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit using evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney as well as billing records and other evidence. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate cause.

The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. The most frequent mistakes include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; not performing an examination of a conflict on a case; applying the law incorrectly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of a case, and failing to communicate with the client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These compensations compensate the victim for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and losses such as hospital and medical bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, victims can claim non-economic damages, such as suffering and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and emotional distress.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases there are cases for punitive and compensatory damages. The first is meant to compensate victims for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney while the latter is designed to prevent future mistakes by the defendant's side.