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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are required to conduct themselves with care, diligence and expertise. But, as with all professionals attorneys make mistakes.

The mistakes made by an attorney are a result of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the aggrieved party must prove obligation, breach of obligation, causation, and damages. Let's look at each one of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to apply their education and skills to cure patients and not cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries suffered from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of duty of care. Your attorney can help you determine if your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and if these breaches resulted in harm or illness to your.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer will need to prove that a medical professional had an legal relationship with you and had a fiduciary obligation to exercise reasonable skill and care. This relationship can be established by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors with similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to 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 as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the defendant's conduct with what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Then, your lawyer has to prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly caused injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence including your doctor's or patient documents, witness testimony and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure meet the standards of care was the primary cause of the 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 doesn't meet those standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury or medical Malpractice Attorney, then negligence could occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have the same training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the appropriate level of care in a given situation. State and federal laws and institute policies also help determine what doctors are required to do for specific types of patients.

To win a malpractice lawyer claim, it must be proven that the doctor breached his or her duty to care and that this violation was a direct reason for an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative that it be established. For example when a broken arm requires an x-ray, the doctor should properly place the arm and put it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor is unable to do this and the patient suffers a permanent loss in use of the arm, malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are founded on the evidence that a lawyer made mistakes that resulted in financial losses to the client. For instance, if a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever the party who suffered damages can bring legal malpractice actions.

It is important to recognize that not all mistakes made by attorneys are mistakes that constitute malpractice lawsuit. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not generally considered to be malpractice attorneys have a lot of latitude in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

Additionally, the law grants attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to conduct a discovery process on the behalf of clients, so long as the action was not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice can be committed through the failure to uncover important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. 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 constant failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it must be proved that, had it not been the negligence of the lawyer, 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 claims complicated. Therefore, it's important to choose a seasoned attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice suit. In a lawsuit, this needs to be proved with evidence, like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and client. In addition, the plaintiff must prove that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is called proximate causation.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include the failure to adhere to a deadline, which includes the statute of limitations, failing to conduct a conflict-check or other due diligence check on a case, improperly applying the law to a client's case, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing trust funds with attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of the case, and failing to communicate with clients.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. These compensations compensate the victim for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and expenses such as medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to aid recovery, and lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages, such as pain and discomfort and loss of enjoyment their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice by the defendant.