Medical
Malpractice LawsuitsAttorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are required to act with care, diligence and ability. Attorneys make mistakes, as do other professional.
A mistake made by an attorney is legal malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove the breach of duty, duty, causation and damage. Let's look at each of these components.
Duty
Medical professionals and doctors take an oath that they will use their skills and experience to treat patients, not causing further harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care and if the breach resulted in injury or illness.
Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional was bound by an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable skill and care. Proving that this relationship existed could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness evidence, or experts from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.
Your lawyer will also have to show that the medical professional breached their duty of caring by failing to follow the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is often described as negligence. Your attorney will compare what the defendant did with what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.
Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly led to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your doctor or patient records, witness testimony, and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to comply with the standard of care was the primary cause of your injury or loss to you.
Breach
A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that reflect professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications or experience can help determine the quality of care in a particular situation. State and federal laws, along with institute policies, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain kinds of patients.
To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation component and it is essential that it be established. For example in the event that a damaged arm requires an x-ray, the doctor must properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor did not do this and the patient was left with permanent loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims are based on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever the party who suffered damages could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It's important to recognize that not all mistakes made by lawyers are considered to be
malpractice. Strategies and planning mistakes are not typically considered to be malpractice. Attorneys have a broad decision-making discretion to make decisions as long as they're able to make them in a reasonable manner.
The law also grants attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of clients, so long as the failure was not unreasonable or negligence. Legal malpractice can be triggered when a lawyer fails to find important documents or facts, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are the inability to add certain defendants or claims, like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for a wrongful-death case or the inability to communicate with clients.
It's also important that it must be proved that if it weren't the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. The claim of malpractice by the plaintiff is deemed invalid if it is not proven. This requirement makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. For this reason, it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions resulted in actual financial losses to win a legal malpractice suit. In a lawsuit, this has to be demonstrated using evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and client. In addition, the plaintiff must prove that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the harm caused by the attorney's negligence. This is called proximate causation.
The definition of malpractice can be found in a variety of ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include the failure to meet a deadline, including a statute of limitation, failure to conduct a conflict-check or other due diligence of the case, not applying law to a client's circumstance or breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. commingling trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of the case, and not communicating with a client.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. These compensations compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and losses such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid recovery, and lost wages. In addition, victims may seek non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional stress.
Legal malpractice cases often include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the damages 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.