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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

The mistakes made by an attorney are malpractice. To establish legal malpractice, the aggrieved party must show duty, breach, causation and damages. Let's review each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and malpractice lawsuits doctors swear to use their training and expertise to treat patients and not to cause harm to others. Duty of care is the basis for a patient's right to compensation if they are injured by medical malpractice. Your attorney can help you determine whether or not your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and whether the breach caused injury or illness to you.

To prove a duty to care, your lawyer needs to prove that a medical professional had an agreement with you in which they had a fiduciary obligation to exercise a reasonable level of competence and care. This can be demonstrated through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient reports and expert testimony from doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty of caring by failing to follow the accepted standards of their field. This is commonly referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must also prove that the breach of the defendant's duty directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence, such as your doctor/patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's failure to comply with the standard of care was the sole cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that reflect the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor fails meet these standards and that failure causes injury, malpractice lawsuits then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have similar training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the standard of care in a particular situation. State and federal laws and institute policies also define what doctors must provide for specific kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case the case must be proved that the doctor violated his or duty of care and that this breach was a direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation factor and it is essential that it is established. For example when a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor must properly place the arm and put it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor failed to perform this task and the patient suffered permanent loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that shows the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For example the lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's crucial to be aware that not all errors made by lawyers are a sign of wrong. Strategy and planning errors aren't usually considered to be a sign of misconduct. Attorneys have a broad choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions as long as they're in the right place.

Additionally, the law grants attorneys a lot of discretion to perform discovery on behalf of a client, so provided that the decision was not unreasonable or negligent. Inability to find important information or documents like medical or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to include certain defendants or claims, for instance not noticing a survival count in an unjustly-dead case or the inability to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it has to be proven that, if not the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. This is why it's important to choose a seasoned attorney to represent you.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit plaintiffs must show financial losses resulting from the actions of an attorney. In a lawsuit, this must be proven through evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and client. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the harm caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is referred to as proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. The most frequent kinds of malpractice are failing to meet a deadline, including a statute of limitation, failure to conduct a conflict-check or other due diligence on the case, not applying the law to the client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. Commingling funds from a trust account an attorney's account as well as failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and losses such as medical and hospitals bills, costs of equipment to help recover and lost wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages, such as discomfort and pain as well as loss of enjoyment from their lives, as well as emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the losses due to the negligence of the attorney while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice lawyers by the defendant's side.