Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and they must act with a high degree of skill, diligence and care. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

Not every mistake made by an attorney constitutes malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an victim must prove that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damage. Let's look at each of these components.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear to use their education and expertise to treat patients and not to cause further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can assist you determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if these breaches resulted in injury or illness to you.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer has to prove that a medical professional has an legal relationship with you in which they had a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with a reasonable level of skill and care. This relationship can be established through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence, and your attorney will examine the defendant's actions with what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Finally, your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly resulted in injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence including your doctor's or patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's failure meet the standards of care was the direct reason for the loss or injury to you.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients which reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet those standards and the failure results in injury, negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals with similar training, skills and certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of care is in a particular case. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to define what doctors must do for specific types of patients.

To win a malpractice case the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation component, and it is vital that it is established. For instance an injured arm requires an x-ray, the doctor must fix the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor did not do this and the patient was left with a permanent loss of use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that the attorney's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For instance, if a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the person who was injured can bring legal malpractice actions.

However, it's important to understand that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of malpractice. Errors involving strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice and lawyers have a lot of latitude to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.

The law also grants attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of a client in the event that the error was not unreasonable or negligent. The failure to discover crucial facts or documents like medical or witness statements can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain claims or defendants such as failing to include a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit, or the repeated and extended failure to contact a client.

It is also important to consider the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that if not for the lawyer's negligent conduct, they would have prevailed. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be rejected. This requirement makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice attorney lawsuit the plaintiff must show actual financial losses that result from an attorney's actions. This must be shown in a lawsuit by utilizing evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney as well as billing records and other evidence. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is known as proximate cause.

Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include failing to adhere to a deadline, which includes a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence of the case, not applying the law to the client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. merging funds from a trust account an attorney's account or handling a case in a wrong manner, and failing to communicate with the client are all examples of malpractice.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. The compensations pay for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and losses such as hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain as well as loss of enjoyment from their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for losses resulting from the attorney's negligence, while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant.