Medical
Malpractice LawsuitsAttorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are expected to act with diligence, care and ability. But, as with all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.
The mistakes made by an attorney can be considered an act of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense, the aggrieved must show duty, breach of obligation, causation, and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.
Duty-Free
Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their training and skills to cure patients and not to cause harm to others. The duty of care is the basis for patients' right to compensation in the event of injury due to medical negligence. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if those breaches caused injuries or illness to you.
To prove a duty to care, your lawyer has to demonstrate that a medical professional has an legal relationship with you that had a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with reasonable skill and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors who have similar educational, experience and training.
Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not submitting to the standards of practice that are accepted in their area of expertise. This is often described as negligence. Your lawyer will assess the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.
Your lawyer must also prove that the breach by the defendant led directly to your loss or
malpractice lawsuit injury. This is known as causation, and your attorney will use evidence such as your medical documents, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.
Breach
A doctor has a duty of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to adhere to these standards and this results in injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Typically expert testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will assist in determining what the minimum standard of care should be in a particular situation. State and federal laws as well as institute policies also help determine what doctors should do for certain types of patients.
To prevail in a
malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor violated his or his duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is crucial to prove it. For instance an injured arm requires an x-ray, the doctor should properly set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor failed to do this and the patient was left with a permanent loss of function of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For example, if a lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost for
Malpractice lawsuit ever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It is important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers constitute wrong. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not usually considered to be malpractice, and attorneys have lots of freedom in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.
The law also gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to perform discovery on the behalf of their clients, as provided that the decision was not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice can be triggered by failing to discover important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are the inability to add certain defendants or claims, for instance failing to include a survival count for the case of wrongful death or the recurrent failure to communicate with clients.
It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that, if not the lawyer's negligence they would have prevailed. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice is deemed invalid if it's not proved. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
To win a legal malpractice case, the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses resulting from the actions of the attorney. This must be shown in a lawsuit through evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney, billing records and other documents. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as proximate cause.
It can happen in a variety of ways. The most frequent kinds of malpractice are the failure to meet a deadline, such as a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict-check or any other due diligence on the case, not applying law to a client's circumstance and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account with an attorney's account or handling a case improperly and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically involve claims for compensatory damages. The compensations pay for out-of pocket expenses and losses such as hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, victims can be able to claim non-economic damages such as suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.
Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the losses caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice by the defendant's side.