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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are required to conduct themselves with diligence, care and expertise. Attorneys make mistakes, as do other professional.

A mistake made by an attorney can be considered malpractice lawyers. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove the breach of duty, obligation, causation, and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their training and experience to treat patients and not cause further harm. A patient's legal right to receive compensation for injuries resulting due to medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if the actions of your doctor violated the duty of care and if these breaches resulted in injury or illness.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer will need to establish that a medical professional has a legal relationship with you in which they have a fiduciary obligation to act with a reasonable level of skill and care. This relationship can be established through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records and expert testimony of doctors with similar education, experience, and training.

Your lawyer will also need to demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of caring by not adhering to the accepted standards in their field. This is often called negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable individual would perform in the same situation.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly resulted in damage or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your medical or patient documents, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's failure to meet the standards of care was the main cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients which corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and this causes injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have the same training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the quality of care in any given situation. State and federal laws as well as institute policies also help define what doctors must provide for specific kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it must be established that the doctor violated his or her duty to care and that this violation was a direct reason for an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element and it is imperative that it be established. If a doctor needs to perform an x-ray on an injured arm, they must put the arm in a casting and correctly place it. If the doctor is unable to complete this task and the patient is left with a permanent loss of usage of the arm, malpractice may have taken place.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are built on the basis of evidence that the attorney made errors that resulted in financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims may be brought by the party who suffered the loss if, for example, the lawyer does not file the lawsuit within the prescribed time and results in the case being thrown out forever.

However, it's important to recognize that not all errors made by attorneys constitute illegal. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning are not generally considered to be Malpractice Attorney attorneys have lots of freedom to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys considerable leeway to fail to conduct discovery on behalf of a client's behalf, as provided that the decision was not unreasonable or negligent. The failure to discover crucial details or documents, such as medical or witness statements or medical reports, could be an instance of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to add certain defendants or claims, like failing to include a survival count for wrongful death cases or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to note that it has to be proven that but the negligence of the lawyer the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This requirement makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. Therefore, it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show financial losses incurred by the actions of an attorney. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit using evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney or billing records, and other documentation. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as the proximate cause.

The act of malpractice can be triggered in a variety of different ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include: failing to adhere to a deadline, which includes the statute of limitations, failure to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence check on the case, not applying law to a client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or mishandling the case, and failing to communicate with the client.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff will seek compensation damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of pocket expenses and losses, such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid recovery, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may claim non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases there are claims for punitive or compensatory damages. The first compensates the victim for the damages due to the negligence of the attorney while the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice by the defendant's side.