Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are required to behave with diligence, care and ability. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.
The mistakes made by lawyers are a result of malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the person who was hurt must prove obligation, breach of duty, causation and damages. Let's take a look at each one of these aspects.
Duty-Free
Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to use their skill and training to treat patients, not cause additional harm. The duty of care is the foundation for the right of a patient to be compensated in the event of injury due to medical negligence. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty to care and whether these violations resulted in injury or illness.
Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional you hired owed the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable skill and care. This can be demonstrated through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors who have similar educational, experience and training.
Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to follow the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is commonly referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.
Finally, your lawyer must demonstrate that the defendant's breach of duty directly resulted in your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence such as your doctor-patient records, witness statements and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your loss or injury.
Breach
A doctor owes patients duties of care that are consistent with the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor does not meet those standards, and the result is an injury or medical malpractice, then negligence could result. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates, skills and experience can help determine the appropriate level of care for a specific situation. State and federal laws, as well as guidelines from the institute, help define what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.
To prevail in a
malpractice lawsuit it is necessary to prove that the doctor violated his or their duty of care, and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is essential to establish. For instance, if a broken arm requires an xray, the doctor must properly set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor was unable to complete the procedure and the patient suffered an irreparable loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For example, if a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It is crucial to be aware that not all errors made by attorneys are illegal. Strategy and planning errors are not typically considered to be malpractice. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion to make decisions so long as they're in the right place.
The law also grants attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery for a client, so long as the decision was not arbitrary or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice can be triggered through the failure to uncover important documents or facts, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, such as not noticing a survival count in a wrongful-death case or the inability to communicate with clients.
It is also important to keep in mind the fact that the plaintiff needs to prove that, if not for the lawyer's careless conduct they would have won their case. The plaintiff's claim for
malpractice attorney is rejected in the event that it is not proved. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It's essential to choose an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions have caused actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice suit. In a lawsuit, this has to be proven with evidence like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the harm caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is called proximate causation.
The act of malpractice can be triggered in a variety of different ways. Some of the most common mistakes include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; failing to perform an investigation into a conflict in cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's particular situation; and breaking an obligation of fiduciary (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account an attorney's own accounts or handling a case improperly and not communicating with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of pocket expenses and expenses such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery, and lost wages. In addition, the victims can seek non-economic damages, like suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional distress.
Legal malpractice cases often involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant.