Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys have a fiduciary responsibilities to their clients, and are required to act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.
The mistakes made by lawyers are considered to be malpractice. To prove legal negligence the aggrieved party must prove the duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Let’s look at each of these aspects.
Duty
Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their training and skills to cure patients and not cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to receive compensation for injuries resulting from medical malpractice attorney (research by the staff of Mireene) hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if the breach caused injury or illness to you.
Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional you hired owed the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable skill and care. The proof of this relationship may require evidence such as your doctor-patient records, eyewitness statements and expert testimony from doctors who have similar knowledge, experience, and education.
Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of practice in their field. This is often called negligence, and your attorney will compare the defendant’s behavior to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.
Your lawyer must also prove that the breach of the defendant’s duty led directly to your loss or injury. This is referred to as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence like your doctor-patient reports, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to meet the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.
Breach
A doctor is required to perform a duty of treatment to his patients that is in line with professional medical standards. If a physician fails to adhere to these standards and the resulting failure causes an injury or medical malpractice, then negligence could result. Typically experts’ testimony from medical professionals with similar training, skills, certifications and experience will aid in determining what the best standard of medical care should be in a particular circumstance. Federal and state laws, as well as guidelines from the institute, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain kinds of patients.
To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be proven that the doctor violated his or her duty to care and that the breach was the sole cause of an injury. This is known in legal terms as the causation element, and it is imperative that it is established. For instance when a broken arm requires an xray the doctor has to properly place the arm and put it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor is unable to do this and the patient is left with a permanent loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice may be at play.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that the attorney’s errors caused financial losses to the client. For instance the lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever and the victim could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.
However, it’s important to realize that not all errors made by lawyers constitute illegal. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys are given plenty of discretion to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.
Additionally, the law grants attorneys a lot of discretion to conduct discovery on the behalf of their clients, as long as the action was not negligent or unreasonable. Failure to uncover important information or documents like medical or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other instances of malpractice include the failure to add certain defendants or claims, such as 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, had it not been the lawyer’s negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying 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 claims complicated. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.
Damages
In order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must show actual financial losses resulting from an attorney’s actions. This can be proven in a lawsuit through evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney along with billing records and other evidence. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer would have prevented the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as proximate cause.
Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. The most frequent errors include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; failing to perform a conflict check on cases; applying law improperly to a client’s particular situation; and breaking an obligation of fiduciary (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account an attorney’s own accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and not communicating with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.
In most medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff will seek compensatory damages. These compensations compensate the victim for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses and losses, such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery and lost wages. Victims can also claim non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain and loss of enjoyment their lives, and emotional distress.
Legal malpractice cases typically involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The first is meant to compensate the victim for the damages caused by negligence on the part of the attorney while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice on the part of the defendant.
