Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and they must act with diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.
Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered legal malpractice. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove obligation, breach of obligation, causation, and damage. Let's take a look at each of these components.
Duty-Free
Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to apply their skill and training to cure patients, not to cause further harm. The duty of care is the basis for a patient's right to compensation when they suffer injuries due to medical negligence. Your attorney can help you determine whether or not your doctor's actions violated this duty of care, and whether those breaches caused harm or illness to your.
To prove a duty to care, your lawyer has to demonstrate that a medical professional has an agreement with you, in which they had a fiduciary obligation to act with an acceptable level of competence and care. Establishing that this relationship existed may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness testimony, as well as experts from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.
Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not living up to the standards of practice that are accepted in their field. This is usually known as negligence. Your attorney will compare what the defendant did to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.
Your lawyer will also need to prove that the defendant's breach directly caused your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence including your doctor's or patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant's failure to comply with the standard of care was the primary cause of your injury or loss to you.
Breach
A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that conform to the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor fails meet those standards and the failure results in injury, medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Typically the testimony of medical professionals who have the same training, qualifications and certifications will help determine what the standard of care should be in a particular situation. Federal and state laws, as well as policies of the institute, help determine what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.
To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit (
what is it worth) it must be proven that the doctor violated his or his duty of care and that this breach was a direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is vital to establish. For example, if a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor has to properly place the arm and put it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor did not perform this task and the patient suffered an irreparable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.
Causation
Legal malpractice claims are based on the evidence that the attorney committed mistakes that caused financial losses for the client. For example, if a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, leading to the case being lost forever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It's important to know that not all errors made by attorneys constitute malpractice. Strategies and mistakes are not usually considered to be malpractice and lawyers have plenty of discretion to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.
Likewise, the law gives attorneys considerable leeway to fail to perform discovery on a client's behalf, as long as it was not unreasonable or negligent. Failure to uncover important information or documents like medical or witness statements can be a case of legal
malpractice attorney. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to include certain defendants or claims, like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for wrongful death cases or the constant failure to communicate with clients.
It is also important to remember the fact that the plaintiff must prove that if not for the lawyer's careless conduct, they would have prevailed. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected when it isn't proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal
malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
A plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice suit. This must be shown in a lawsuit through evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney along with billing records and other documents. The plaintiff must also show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is known as the proximate cause.
The act of malpractice can be triggered in a variety of different ways. Some of the most common mistakes are: failing to meet an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to conduct the necessary conflict checks on an instance; applying the law incorrectly to a client's situation; or breaking the fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account 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.
In the majority of medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensation damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, for example hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment needed to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. In addition, victims may seek non-economic damages, like pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and emotional distress.
Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates victims for losses resulting from the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to discourage future misconduct by the defendant.