Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are in a fiduciary position with their clients and are expected to conduct themselves with diligence, care and skill. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

The mistakes made by an attorney is an act of malpractice. To prove that legal malpractice has occurred, the aggrieved person must demonstrate obligation, breach, causation and damages. Let's examine each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath that they will use their knowledge and bartlett malpractice attorney expertise to treat patients, and not to cause further harm. Duty of care is the basis for the right of patients to receive compensation if they are injured by medical negligence. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not your doctor's actions breached this duty of care, and whether these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To establish a duty of care, your lawyer has to establish that a medical professional has an official relationship with you in which they had a fiduciary obligation to exercise an acceptable level of skill and care. The proof of this relationship could require evidence like the records of your doctor-patient or eyewitness testimony, as well as expert testimony from doctors with similar qualifications, experience and education.

Your lawyer will also need to show that the medical professional violated their duty of caring by failing to follow the accepted standards in their area of expertise. This is typically known as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar 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, and your attorney will rely on evidence such as your medical reports, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's inability to uphold the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your loss or injury.

Breach

A doctor is responsible for the duties of care that are consistent with the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor fails to meet these standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could result. Typically expert testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training, certifications and experience will help determine what the standard of medical care should be in a particular situation. State and federal laws as well as institute policies can also be used to determine what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

To prevail in a Faribault Malpractice Law Firm lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that this breach was the direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation factor and it is crucial to establish. For instance, if a broken arm requires an x-ray the doctor must properly set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor fails to perform this, and the patient loses their the use of the arm, new jersey malpractice lawsuit may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that shows the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For example when a lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, leading to the case being lost for ever and the victim may bring legal malpractice claims.

It's important to know that not all mistakes by attorneys are malpractice. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning do not typically constitute malpractice and lawyers have lots of freedom to make judgement calls so long as they're reasonable.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys a lot of discretion to conduct discovery on the behalf of their clients, as in the event that it is not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice is committed when a lawyer fails to find important documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to include certain defendants or claims, like forgetting a survival count for wrongful death cases, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important that it must be proved that, if not the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the underlying case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice claims complicated. It is important to employ an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must prove that the attorney's actions caused actual financial losses to win a legal malpractice suit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit using evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney, billing records and other documentation. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is referred to as proximate cause.

Malpractice can manifest in a number of different ways. Some of the most common mistakes are: failing to meet an expiration date or statute of limitations; not conducting a conflict check on a case; applying the law improperly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary duty (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account an attorney's account as well as failing to communicate with the client are all examples of glendive malpractice lawyer.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These compensations compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as losses, such as medical and hospitals bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery and lost wages. Victims can also seek non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain or loss of enjoyment in their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases, there are cases for punitive and compensatory damages. The former is intended to compensate the victim for the losses caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is meant to discourage any future malpractice on the defendant's part.