Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are expected to behave with diligence, care and ability. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

Not every mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To prove that legal malpractice has occurred, the aggrieved party must show obligation, breach, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Medical professionals and doctors take the oath of using their skills and experience to treat patients, not to cause further harm. A patient's legal right to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your attorney can assist you determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care, and if these breaches resulted in injury or illness to you.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer must to show that a medical professional had a legal relationship with you in which they have a fiduciary obligation to act with a reasonable level of skill and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient eyewitness accounts and expert testimony from doctors who have similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also need to demonstrate that the medical professional breached their duty of care in not adhering to the accepted standards of their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will assess the conduct of the defendant to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

In addition, your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony, and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's inability to comply with the standard of care was the primary cause of injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is obligated to patients to perform duties of care that conform to the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a physician fails to meet these standards and fails to do so results in injury, medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Typically, expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, expertise or certifications will help determine what the appropriate standard of care is in a specific situation. Federal and state laws, as well as guidelines from the institute, help determine what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation element and it is vital that it is established. For example when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor must set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the physician failed to complete the procedure and the patient suffered an irreparable loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney la junta malpractice lawsuit claims are based on evidence that shows the attorney's errors caused financial losses to the client. For example the lawyer fails to file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever the party who suffered damages can bring legal malpractice actions.

It's important to recognize that not all mistakes made by attorneys are malpractice. Errors involving strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys have plenty of discretion to make judgement calls so long as they're reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of a client, so long as the failure was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Legal malpractice can be triggered through the failure to uncover important documents or facts, like medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the inability to add certain defendants or claims, for instance not noticing a survival count in a wrongful-death case, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to remember that it must be established that, had it not been the negligence of the lawyer the plaintiff would have won the case. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be dismissed when it isn't proven. This requirement makes it difficult to bring a legal Scottdale Malpractice Law Firm claim. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must show actual financial losses resulting from an attorney's actions. In the case of 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 demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer would have avoided the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as the proximate cause.

It can happen in many different ways. Some of the most common types of malpractice include the failure to meet a deadline, such as a statute of limitation, failure to conduct a check on conflicts or other due diligence check on the case, not applying the law to a client's case or breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust account funds with personal attorney accounts), mishandling of the case, or failing to communicate with clients.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff seeks compensation damages. These compensations compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and losses such as hospital and medical bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery and lost wages. In addition, victims may claim non-economic damages, like suffering and suffering or loss of enjoyment life and emotional suffering.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases there are cases for punitive and compensatory damages. The former compensates a victim for the loss resulting from the negligence of an attorney, while the latter is intended to deter any future malpractice committed by the defendant.