Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are expected to act with diligence, care and skill. However, like all professionals attorneys make mistakes.
The mistakes made by an attorney is malpractice. To prove legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damage. Let's look at each one of these aspects.
Duty
Doctors and other medical professionals swear by their training and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. A patient's legal right to compensation for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the concept of duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if these breaches resulted in injury or illness to you.
Your lawyer must establish that the medical professional was bound by an obligation of fiduciary to act with reasonable competence and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony of witnesses, doctor-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors who have similar education, experience and training.
Your lawyer must also prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not living up to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is often referred to as negligence. Your lawyer will compare the defendant's behavior to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.
Finally, your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly resulted in injury or loss to you. This is referred to as causation, and your lawyer will make use of evidence like your doctor-patient records, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's failure to live up to the standards of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.
Breach
A doctor is obligated to patients to perform duties of care that adhere to the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a physician fails to meet those standards and that failure causes injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that possess similar qualifications, training and skills can help determine the quality of care in a given situation. State and federal laws and institute policies also determine what doctors are required to perform for specific types of patients.
To win a malpractice case, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation element and it is essential to establish. If a doctor is required to obtain an xray of a broken arm, they must place the arm in a cast and then correctly set it. If the doctor did not do so and the patient suffered an irreparable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that the attorney's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever, the injured party can bring legal malpractice actions.
However, it's crucial to be aware that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of malpractice. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice attorneys have the ability to make judgment calls as long as they are reasonable.
The law also grants attorneys considerable latitude to not perform discovery on behalf of their clients in the event that the reason for the delay was not unreasonable or a case of negligence. Failing to discover important details or documents, such as medical reports or statements of witnesses can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain claims or defendants such as failing to file a survival count in a wrongful-death case or the continual and extended failure to contact a client.
It's also important to keep in mind that it has to be proven that, had it not been the negligence of the lawyer, 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 bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.
Damages
To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must prove actual financial losses incurred by an attorney's actions. In a lawsuit, this must be proven with evidence like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff must demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have avoided the harm that was caused by the attorney's negligence. This is known as the proximate cause.
Malpractice can occur in many different ways. The most frequent types of malpractice include: failing to meet a deadline, including a statute of limitations, failing to conduct a conflict-check or other due diligence check on a case, improperly applying law to a client's situation or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. mixing funds from a trust account with the attorney's own accounts or handling a case in a wrong manner, and not communicating with the client are all examples of malpractice.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically involve claims for compensation 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. Additionally, victims may seek non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress.
Legal malpractice cases often include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the losses caused by the attorney's negligence, while the latter is designed to deter future malpractice by the defendant.
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