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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients, and they are expected act with diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like any other professional.

Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered malpractice. To prove legal negligence 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

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath that they will use their expertise and knowledge to treat patients, not causing further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries suffered from medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if the actions of your doctor breached the duty of medical care and if those breaches resulted in your injury or illness.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional owed you the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable competence and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence, such as the records of your doctor-patient eyewitness accounts and experts from doctors with similar experience, education and training.

Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is often referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did with what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to the loss or injury you suffered. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will use evidence like your doctor or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant's failure to meet the standard of care was the direct cause of your injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that conform to professional standards in medical practice. If a physician fails to meet these standards and this causes injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications as well as experience and qualifications can help determine the level of care in a particular situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also define what doctors must do for specific types of patients.

In order to win a malpractice claim it must be established that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty to care and that this violation was a direct reason for an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is crucial to establish. If a doctor needs to obtain an xray of an injured arm, they must place the arm in a casting and correctly set it. If the doctor did not perform this task and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Lawyer malpractice claims are built on the basis of evidence that the lawyer made errors that resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is important to understand that not all errors made by attorneys constitute wrong. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys have plenty of discretion to make judgement calls so long as they're reasonable.

Additionally, the law grants attorneys considerable leeway to fail to conduct discovery on behalf of a client, so long as the action was not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice can be committed when a lawyer fails to find important documents or facts, like medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice lawyer are the failure to add certain defendants or claims, like failing to include a survival count for the case of wrongful death or the inability to communicate with clients.

It is also important to consider the fact that the plaintiff must demonstrate that, if it weren't for the lawyer's negligent conduct, they would 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 lawsuits difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit through evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney as well as billing records and other evidence. 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 the proximate cause.

The causes of malpractice vary. Some of the most common types of malpractice include the failure to adhere to a deadline, which includes the statute of limitations, failure to conduct a check on conflicts or other due diligence on the case, not applying law to a client's circumstance or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust account funds with personal attorney accounts) or mishandling a case, and failing to communicate with the client.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for out-of pocket expenses and expenses like hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, the victims can be able to claim non-economic damages like suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional stress.

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