Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are required to act with diligence, care and expertise. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

Every mistake made by an attorney constitutes an act of malpractice. To prove legal negligence the victim must demonstrate duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty-Free

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to apply their education and experience to treat patients and not to cause further harm. Duty of care is the basis for the right of patients to receive compensation for injuries caused by medical negligence. Your attorney will determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty to care and if the breach resulted in your injury or illness.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional in question owed you the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. This can be proved by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors with similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of care in not adhering to the accepted standards in their field. This is often referred to as negligence, and your attorney will examine the defendant's actions to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

In addition, your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to the loss or injury you suffered. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will rely on evidence like your doctor-patient documents, witness statements, and expert testimony to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty to patients of care that adhere to the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor does not meet these standards and that failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, qualifications, certifications and experience will help determine what the standard of care is in a specific situation. Federal and state laws, as well as policies of the institute, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that the breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element, and it is vital to prove it. If a doctor has to conduct an x-ray examination of an injured arm, they must put the arm in a cast and properly set it. If the doctor did not complete the procedure and the patient was left with an irreparable loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance, if a lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is important to understand that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes do not usually constitute the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a wide choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions, as long as they're rational.

The law also gives attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery for a client, so long as the error was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice can be triggered by not obtaining crucial documents or facts, like medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice attorney are the inability to add certain defendants or claims, like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for the case of wrongful death or the constant failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it must be proven that, if not the negligence of the lawyer the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice is deemed invalid in the event that it is not proved. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions have caused actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice suit. This can be proven in a lawsuit with evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney along with billing records and other evidence. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the more common kinds of malpractice are failing to meet a deadline, such as the statute of limitations, failing to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence check on the case, not applying law to a client's situation and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing trust funds with personal attorney accounts), mishandling of a case, and failing to communicate with a client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensation damages. These compensate the victim for the out-of-pocket expenses and losses, like medical and hospital bills, the cost of equipment that aids in recovering, and lost wages. Victims are also able to claim non-economic damages like pain and discomfort, loss of enjoyment of their lives, as well as emotional suffering.

In many legal malpractice cases, there are claims for punitive and compensatory damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for losses caused by negligence on the part of the attorney while the latter is meant to discourage future malpractice on the part of the defendant.