Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys are required to fulfill a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, and they are expected act with diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.
Not every mistake made by an attorney constitutes legal malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an aggrieved party must show that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damages. Let's take a look at each of these components.
Duty-Free
Medical professionals and doctors take an oath to apply their expertise and knowledge to treat patients and not cause additional harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice rests on the notion of duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine if your doctor's actions breached this duty of care, and if those breaches caused injury or illness to you.
To prove a duty of care, your lawyer must to show that a medical professional has a legal relationship with you and were bound by a fiduciary duty to act with reasonable competence and care. Proving that this relationship existed could require evidence like your doctor-patient records or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors who have similar knowledge, experience, and education.
Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty to care by failing to follow the accepted standards of their field. This is commonly described as negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.
Your lawyer must also prove that the defendant's breach directly caused your loss or injury. This is known as causation, and your lawyer will make use of evidence like your medical records, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure to adhere to the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.
Breach
A doctor is bound by a duty of care for his patients that is in line with professional medical standards. If a doctor does not meet those standards and fails to do so results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who possess similar qualifications, training, skills and experience can help determine the quality of care in any given situation. State and federal laws, as well as policies of the institute, help define what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.
To be successful in a malpractice case the evidence must prove that the doctor violated his or her duty of care and that the violation was the sole cause of an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative to prove it. If a doctor has to conduct an x-ray examination of an injured arm, they must place the arm in a cast and properly place it. If the physician failed to do this and the patient was left with a permanent loss of use of the arm, then
malpractice attorney may have occurred.
Causation
Legal malpractice claims are based on the evidence that a lawyer made mistakes that led to financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever and the victim can bring legal malpractice actions.
However, it's important to recognize that not all errors made by lawyers are a sign of illegal. Strategies and planning errors are not always considered to be negligence. Attorneys have a broad choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions as long as they're reasonable.
Additionally, the law grants attorneys the right to conduct a discovery process on the behalf of their clients, as in the event that it is not unreasonable or negligent. Failing to discover important documents or facts, such as medical reports or witness statements can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice are a inability to include certain defendants or claims such as failing to make a survival claim in a wrongful-death case or the frequent and long-running inability to communicate with a client.
It is also important to remember that it must be proved that, if not for the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This requirement makes bringing
legal malpractice claims difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.
Damages
To prevail in a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show financial losses that result from the actions of an attorney. This must be shown in a lawsuit by utilizing evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney along with billing records and other evidence. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm caused by the attorney's negligence. This is known as proximate causation.
Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include failing to meet a deadline, such as a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict-check or other due diligence of the case, not applying law to a client's situation and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or mishandling the case, or failing to communicate with the client.
Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. They compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and losses, including hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovery, and loss of wages. In addition, the victims can be able to claim non-economic damages such as suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life and emotional distress.
Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The first compensates the victim for the damages caused by the negligence of the attorney while the latter is meant to prevent future mistakes by the defendant's side.