Medical
Malpractice LawsuitsAttorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are required to behave with diligence, care and skill. But, as with all professionals attorneys make mistakes.
Some mistakes made by attorneys are considered to be malpractice. To prove legal negligence, the aggrieved must show the breach of duty, duty, causation, and damages. Let's take a look at each of these components.
Duty
Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their training and expertise to treat patients and not to cause harm to others. The duty of care is the basis for a patient's right to compensation if they are injured by medical malpractice. Your attorney can determine if the actions of your doctor breached the duty of care and whether these violations caused injury or illness.
Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional was bound by the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable competence and care. The proof of this relationship may require evidence, such as the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors who have similar experiences, education and training.
Your lawyer must also show that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not adhering to the accepted standards of practice in their field. This is often called negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable individual would take in the same scenario.
Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly led to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence such as your medical records, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant's inability to meet the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.
Breach
A doctor is obligated to patients to perform duties of care that conform to the standards of medical professional practice. If a doctor does not live up to those standards and fails to do so results in injury, medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates and skills can help determine the appropriate level of care in any given situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also determine what doctors are required to do for specific types of patients.
To prevail in a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative to establish. If a doctor is required to take an x-ray of a broken arm, they must put the arm in a casting and correctly place it. If the doctor did not do this and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Lawyer malpractice claims are founded on the evidence that the attorney made errors that resulted in financial losses to the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It is crucial to realize that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Strategies and planning errors do not usually constitute malpractice. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion in making decisions, as long as they're reasonable.
The law also gives attorneys considerable leeway to fail to perform discovery on a client's behalf, as long as the action was not negligent or unreasonable. The failure to discover crucial information or documents like medical reports or statements of witnesses, is a potential example of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice are a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as omitting to file a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit or the continual and long-running inability to communicate with clients.
It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff must show that if it wasn't the lawyer's negligence they would have won their case. The plaintiff's claim of malpractice is deemed invalid when it isn't proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
A plaintiff must prove that the lawyer's actions led to actual financial losses to win a legal
malpractice lawsuit suit. In a lawsuit, this must be proven with evidence such as expert testimony and correspondence between the client and attorney. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the harm that was caused by the attorney's negligence. This is known as the proximate cause.
Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. The most frequent mistakes include: not meeting the deadline or statute of limitations; failing to conduct an investigation into a conflict in an instance; applying the law in a way that is not appropriate to the client's circumstances; and breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. merging funds from a trust account with an attorney's account or handling a case improperly and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.
In the majority of medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, such as hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment required to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, victims may seek non-economic damages, like pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and emotional suffering.
Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former is intended to compensate victims for losses caused by negligence on the part of the attorney while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant's side.