Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

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

A mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party must show obligation, breach, causation and damages. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their education and experience to treat patients and not cause harm to others. The legal right of a patient to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice is based on the concept of duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and if these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional was bound by an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable skill and care. Establishing that this relationship existed could require evidence like your records of your doctor-patient relationship or eyewitness evidence, or experts from doctors with similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of caring by not adhering to the accepted standards in their field. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will assess the conduct of the defendant with what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly caused injury or loss to you. This is known as causation, and your lawyer will make use of evidence like your medical documents, witness statements and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to uphold the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of treatment to his patients that is in line with professional medical standards. If a doctor does not adhere to these standards and the failure results in an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence can occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have similar training, certifications or experience can help determine the level of care in a given situation. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors are required to perform for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or their duty of care, and that the breach was the direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation factor and it is crucial that it is established. If a physician has to conduct an x-ray examination of an injured arm, they have to put the arm in a cast and properly place it. If the doctor failed to complete the procedure and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims built on the basis of evidence that the attorney committed mistakes that led to financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims can be filed by the injured party in the event that, for instance, the attorney fails to file the lawsuit within the statutes of limitations and results in the case being permanently lost.

It's important to know that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Strategies and mistakes are not generally considered to be malpractice law firm and lawyers have lots of freedom to make decisions based on their judgments as long as they're reasonable.

The law also gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to perform discovery on the behalf of their clients, as in the event that it is not negligent or unreasonable. Inability to find important details or documents, such as medical reports or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, like forgetting a survival count for an unjustly-dead case or the inability to communicate with clients.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that, if not for the lawyer's negligent conduct they would have prevailed. The claim of malpractice by the plaintiff will be dismissed in the event that it is not proved. This is why it's difficult to file a legal malpractice claim. It's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses caused by an attorney's actions. This can be proven in a lawsuit with evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other documentation. In addition, the plaintiff must prove that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is referred to as proximate causation.

The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. The most frequent kinds of malpractice are the failure to meet a deadline, including a statute of limitation, failure 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. the commingling of funds from a trust account with the attorney's own accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

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

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the losses due to the negligence of the attorney and the latter is intended to discourage any future malpractice on the defendant's part.