Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary obligation with their clients and are expected to conduct themselves with diligence, care and competence. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

The mistakes made by attorneys are malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense the aggrieved party must prove obligation, breach of duty, causation and damage. Let's take a look at each of these elements.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to use their skills and experience to treat patients and not to cause further harm. A patient's legal right to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical malpractice hinges on the notion of the duty of care. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions breached the duty of care and if these breaches resulted in your injury or illness.

Your lawyer must establish that the medical professional was bound by a fiduciary duty to act with reasonable skill and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence, such as the records of your doctor-patient eyewitness accounts and expert testimony from doctors with similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional breached their duty of care by not living up to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is often called negligence. Your attorney will examine the defendant's actions to what a reasonable person would perform in the same situation.

Your lawyer must demonstrate that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence like your doctor or patient reports, witness testimony and expert testimony, to demonstrate that the defendant's inability to meet the standards of care was the primary cause of injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is bound by a duty of care to his patients which is in line with professional medical standards. If a physician fails to meet those standards, and the failure results in an injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates, skills and experience can help determine the standard of care in any given situation. Federal and state laws, as well as institute policies, help determine what doctors are required to provide for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice case it is necessary to prove that the doctor violated his or duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component, and it is essential 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 for proper healing. If the doctor fails to perform this, and the patient suffers a permanent loss of the use of their arm, malpractice could have taken place.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For example when a lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations, resulting in the case ber of different ways. Some of the more common kinds of malpractice are the failure to meet a deadline, such as a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a conflict-check or any other due diligence on the case, not applying the law to a client's case or breaching a fiduciary obligation (i.e. the commingling of trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of an instance, and failing to communicate with a client.

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for the out-isle of palms malpractice attorney-pocket expenses and losses, such as hospital and medical bills, costs of equipment required to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may seek non-economic damages, like suffering and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and emotional suffering.

Legal malpractice cases often involve claims for compensatory as well as punitive damages. The former compensates a victim for losses caused by the negligence of an attorney, while the latter is designed to discourage future malpractice by the defendant.