Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are expected to act with diligence, care and skill. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Some errors made by attorneys are a result of malpractice. To establish legal malpractice, the aggrieved person must demonstrate that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damages. Let's examine each of these elements.

Duty

Doctors and other medical professionals swear by their training and experience to treat patients and not to cause harm to others. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries suffered due to medical malpractice is based on the concept of duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine whether or not your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and whether these breaches caused harm or illness to your.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer must to establish that a medical professional had an agreement with you that were bound by a fiduciary duty to exercise reasonable skill and care. This can be proved by eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors who have similar education, experience, and training.

Your lawyer will also need to demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty of caring by not adhering to the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is often called negligence, and your attorney will examine the defendant's actions with what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the defendant's negligence directly caused your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will use evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's inability to meet the standard of care was the sole reason for the loss or injury to you.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of care to his patients which conforms to the highest standards of medical practice. If a physician fails to meet these standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury and/or medical malpractice, then negligence could result. Typically, expert testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, qualifications and certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of care should be in a particular situation. State and federal laws, along with institute policies, determine what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.

To be successful in a malpractice case, it must be proven that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty of care and that the violation was a direct reason for an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation component and it is imperative that it be established. For instance in the event that a damaged arm requires an x-ray, the doctor has to properly place the arm and put it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor did not complete the procedure and the patient was left with permanent loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Legal malpractice claims based on the evidence that the attorney made mistakes that caused financial losses for the client. For instance the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages can bring legal malpractice actions.

It is important to recognize that not all mistakes made by attorneys are illegal. Errors involving strategy and planning aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys are given the ability in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys the right to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of their clients as long as the error was not unreasonable or negligence. Failure to uncover important details or documents like medical reports or statements of witnesses or medical reports, could be an instance of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include failure to add certain defendants or claims such as failing to include a survival count in a case of wrongful death or the frequent and long-running inability to contact the client.

It's also important to note that it must be proven that but the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes it difficult to file a legal malpractice claim. Therefore, it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses in order to win a legal Malpractice Attorney lawsuit. This should be proved in a lawsuit through evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney, billing records and other documents. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

It can happen in many different ways. Some of the most common mistakes are: failing to meet an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to perform an investigation into a conflict in a case; applying the law in a way that is not appropriate to the client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account the attorney's personal accounts as well as not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.

In the majority of medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensation damages. These compensate the victim for the expenses out of pocket and losses, including medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. Additionally, victims may claim non-economic damages, such as suffering and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress.

Legal malpractice cases often involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The first compensates the victim for losses caused by negligence on the part of the attorney while the latter is designed to discourage any future malpractice on the part of the defendant.