Malpractice Attorney Explained In Fewer Than 140 Characters

Medical malpractice law firms Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to their clients, and are required to act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. Attorneys make mistakes, as do other professional.

Not all mistakes made by an attorney are legal malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the person who was hurt must prove obligation, breach of duty, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each of these aspects.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to apply their skills and experience to treat patients and not cause additional harm. The duty of care is the basis for patients' right to compensation in the event of injury due to medical malpractice. Your lawyer can help determine if the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer must establish that the medical professional in question owed you the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. The proof of this relationship may require evidence such as the records of your doctor and 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 breached their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of practice in their field. This is typically described as negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did with what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly resulted in damage or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence like your doctor or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to adhere to the standard of care was the sole cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor has a duty of care to his patients which reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor doesn't meet the standards, and the resulting failure causes an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could result. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the quality of care in any given situation. Federal and state laws, as well as institute policies, define what doctors are required to do for certain kinds of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit, it must be shown that the doctor breached his or her duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component, and it is crucial that it is established. For instance when a broken arm requires an x-ray, the doctor has to properly set the arm and then place it in a cast for proper healing. If the doctor is unable to perform this, and the patient suffers a permanent loss of use of the arm, malpractice could be at play.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that the attorney's errors resulted in financial losses for the client. For example the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It's important to recognize that not all mistakes by attorneys are malpractice. Strategies and mistakes aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys have plenty of discretion to make judgment calls as long as they're reasonable.

In addition, the law allows attorneys a lot of discretion to conduct a discovery process on a client's behalf, as long as it was not negligent or unreasonable. Legal malpractice can be committed by failing to discover important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice include a inability to include certain defendants or claims for example, like forgetting to make a survival claim in a wrongful death case or the consistent and extended failure to communicate with the client.

It is also important to note the fact that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that, if it weren't due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they could have won their case. Otherwise, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be rejected. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. This is why it's crucial to hire an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice suit, a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses caused by the actions of an attorney. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit through evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between client and attorney along with billing records and other records. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer would have avoided the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is referred to as proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. The most frequent malpractices include: failing an expiration date or statute of limitations; not conducting a conflict check on an instance; applying the law incorrectly to a client's circumstances; and breaching the fiduciary obligation (i.e. mixing trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of an instance, and malpractice lawsuit failing to communicate with clients.

In the majority of medical malpractice cases the plaintiff will seek compensatory damages. These compensate the victim for the expenses out of pocket and losses, including hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment that aids in recovering, and lost wages. In addition, victims can claim non-economic damages, like pain and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The first is meant to compensate victims for losses caused by the attorney's negligence while the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice on the part of the defendant.