Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients, and are required to act with skill, diligence and care. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Some mistakes made by lawyers are legal malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the aggrieved party must prove duty, breach of obligation, causation, and damages. Let's take a look at each one of these aspects.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to apply their knowledge and expertise to treat patients, and not cause additional harm. Duty of care is the basis for a patient's right to compensation if they are injured by medical malpractice. Your attorney can determine if the actions of your doctor breached the duty of medical care and whether these violations caused injury or illness.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional you hired owed an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable skill and care. The proof of this relationship may require evidence, such as your doctor-patient records or eyewitness testimony, as well as experts from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty to care by failing to follow the accepted standards in their field. This is typically known as negligence. Your lawyer will be able to compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach of the defendant's duty directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your medical documents, witness statements, and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's failure to uphold the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your loss or injury.

Breach

A doctor has a responsibility of care to his patients that conforms to the highest standards of medical practice. If a doctor does not adhere to these standards and that failure results in injury, negligence and medical giddings malpractice attorney might occur. Typically, expert testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of treatment should be in a particular situation. State and federal laws and institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors should do for specific types of patients.

To win a malpractice claim it must be established that the doctor did not fulfill his or her duty of care and that this violation was the primary cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation element and it is essential that it is established. For example an injured arm requires an xray the doctor should properly set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor was unable to complete the procedure and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's errors caused financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims can be brought by the party who suffered the loss if, for example, the lawyer does not file the lawsuit within the prescribed time and the case being lost forever.

It is important to understand that not all mistakes by lawyers are considered to be malpractice. Planning and strategy errors are not typically considered to be malpractice. Attorneys have a broad range of discretion in making decisions as long as they're able to make them in a reasonable manner.

The law also gives attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of their clients provided that the error was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice can be caused through the failure to uncover important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include failure to add certain defendants or claims for example, like forgetting to file a survival count in a case of wrongful death, or the repeated and extended inability to contact the client.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that, if not the lawyer's negligence they would have prevailed. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice is deemed invalid if it is not proven. This requirement makes it difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. Therefore, it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show financial losses that result from an attorney's actions. In a lawsuit, this has to be proven through evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the harm caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as proximate cause.

It can happen in a variety of ways. The most frequent mistakes include: not meeting the deadline or statute of limitations; not performing a conflict check on cases; applying law improperly to a client's particular situation; and breaking the fiduciary obligation (i.e. Commingling funds from a trust account with the attorney's own accounts or handling a case improperly and failing to communicate with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.

In the majority of medical suwanee Malpractice law firm cases the plaintiff seeks compensatory damages. They compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, like hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment that aids in recovering, and lost wages. In addition, the victims can claim non-economic damages, like pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment life, and emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The first is meant to compensate victims for losses caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is meant to deter future malpractice on the defendant's part.