Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients, and they must act with skill, diligence and care. However, just like any other professional attorneys make mistakes.
The mistakes made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To prove legal negligence the person who was hurt must prove obligation, breach of obligation, causation, and damages. Let’s take a look at each one of these aspects.
Duty
Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to apply their knowledge and expertise to cure patients, not to cause further harm. Duty of care is the basis for patients’ right to compensation in the event of injury due to medical negligence. Your attorney will determine if the actions of your doctor violated the duty of care and if the breach resulted in injury or illness.
To establish a duty of care, your lawyer needs to demonstrate that a medical professional has an agreement with you and had a fiduciary obligation to act with an acceptable level of expertise and care. Establishing that this relationship existed may require evidence such as the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness testimony, as well as expert testimony from doctors who have similar knowledge, experience, and education.
Your lawyer must also demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not adhering to the accepted standards of practice in their field. This is often referred to as negligence. Your attorney will assess the conduct of the defendant with what a reasonable person would take in the same scenario.
Then, your lawyer has to prove that the defendant’s breach of duty directly caused damage or loss to you. This is referred to as causation. Your attorney will use evidence such as your doctor-patient documents, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant’s failure to meet the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your loss or injury.
Breach
A doctor owes patients duties of care that reflect professional standards in medical practice. If a doctor doesn’t meet the standards, and the result is an injury that is medically negligent, negligence could occur. Typically expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, expertise, certifications and experience will assist in determining what the minimum standard of medical care should be in a specific situation. Federal and state laws, as well as guidelines from the institute, help define what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.
In order to win a malpractice attorney claim it must be proved that the doctor violated his or her duty of care and that this violation was the primary cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation factor and it is crucial that it be established. If a doctor has to take an x-ray of a broken arm, they have to put the arm in a cast and correctly place it. If the doctor was unable to perform this task and the patient was left with an unavoidable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice could have occurred.
Causation
Legal malpractice claims are based on the evidence that a lawyer made mistakes that caused financial losses to the client. For instance the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
It’s important to know that not all mistakes made by attorneys are considered to be malpractice. Planning and strategy errors do not usually constitute misconduct. Attorneys have a wide choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions as long as they’re reasonable.
The law also allows lawyers ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of clients, so long as the failure was not unreasonable or negligence. Legal malpractice is committed by not obtaining crucial documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other instances of malpractice include the inability to add certain defendants or claims, such as the mistake of not remembering a survival number for an unjustly-dead case or the inability to communicate with clients.
It is also important to remember the fact that the plaintiff has to prove that, if not the lawyer’s negligence, they would have won their case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff’s claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It’s crucial to hire an experienced attorney.
Damages
A plaintiff must prove that the attorney’s actions resulted in actual financial losses to prevail in a legal malpractice suit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit using evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney or billing records, and other documents. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm that was caused by the attorney’s negligence. This is known as the proximate cause.
The causes of malpractice vary. Some of the most common mistakes are: failing to meet an expiration date or statute of limitations; failing to perform the necessary conflict checks on an issue; applying the law improperly to a client’s circumstances; and breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account an attorney’s account as well as not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically involve claims for compensatory damages. These damages compensate the victim for out-of pocket expenses and expenses such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery and lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages such as pain and discomfort as well as loss of enjoyment from their lives, and emotional stress.
Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the loss resulting from the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.
