Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are expected to behave with diligence, care and competence. However, like all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.
A mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove duty, breach, causation and damages. Let's look at each of these elements.
Duty-Free
Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their education and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. The duty of care is the foundation for the right of a patient to be compensated for injuries caused by medical negligence. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care and whether these violations resulted in your injury or illness.
To establish a duty of care, your lawyer has to demonstrate that a medical professional has an official relationship with you that owed you a fiduciary responsibility to exercise an acceptable level of competence and care. This relationship can be established through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors with similar educational, experience and training.
Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is commonly known as negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.
Then, your lawyer has to prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly caused injury or loss to you. This is called causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence, such as your doctor/patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant’s failure to adhere to the standard of care was the sole reason for the loss or injury to you.
Breach
A doctor has a duty of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have similar training, certifications and skills can help determine the appropriate level of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws, along with institute policies, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain kinds of patients.
In order to win a malpractice claim, it must be proven that the doctor violated his or her duty of care and that the violation was the primary cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation element and it is vital to establish. If a physician has to obtain an xray of a broken arm, they have to put the arm in a casting and correctly set it. If the doctor did not do so and the patient suffered an unavoidable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims rely on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. Legal malpractice attorneys claims can be filed by the injured party when, for instance, the attorney fails to file the suit within the statutes of limitations and the case being lost forever.
However, it's important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers constitute wrong. Planning and strategy errors aren't usually considered to be a sign of the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a wide choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions, as long as they're in the right place.
The law also grants attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of clients as long as the failure was not unreasonable or negligence. Failing to discover important information or documents like medical reports or witness statements can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice lawsuit include a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as failing to submit a survival count in a wrongful death case or the continual and extended failure to communicate with clients.
It is also important to remember that it must be established that, if not the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes it difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
To prevail in a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show financial losses resulting from the actions of an attorney. This should be proved in a lawsuit with evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney or billing records, and other documentation. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as the proximate cause.
Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include the failure to meet a deadline, such as the statute of limitations, failure to conduct a check on conflicts or any other due diligence on the case, not applying the law to the client's situation and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing trust funds with an attorney's personal accounts) and mishandling the case, or not communicating with a client.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. They compensate the victim for the out-of-pocket expenses and losses, including medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages such as pain and discomfort and loss of enjoyment their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.
Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to discourage future malpractice by the defendant.
Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are expected to behave with diligence, care and competence. However, like all professionals, attorneys make mistakes.
A mistake made by an attorney can be considered negligence. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove duty, breach, causation and damages. Let's look at each of these elements.
Duty-Free
Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their education and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. The duty of care is the foundation for the right of a patient to be compensated for injuries caused by medical negligence. Your attorney can determine if your doctor's actions violated the duty of care and whether these violations resulted in your injury or illness.
To establish a duty of care, your lawyer has to demonstrate that a medical professional has an official relationship with you that owed you a fiduciary responsibility to exercise an acceptable level of competence and care. This relationship can be established through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient documents and expert testimony from doctors with similar educational, experience and training.
Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is commonly known as negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did to what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.
Then, your lawyer has to prove that the defendant's lapse of duty directly caused injury or loss to you. This is called causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence, such as your doctor/patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to prove that the defendant’s failure to adhere to the standard of care was the sole reason for the loss or injury to you.
Breach
A doctor has a duty of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, then negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Expert witness testimony from medical professionals that have similar training, certifications and skills can help determine the appropriate level of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws, along with institute policies, help define what doctors are expected to do for certain kinds of patients.
In order to win a malpractice claim, it must be proven that the doctor violated his or her duty of care and that the violation was the primary cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is referred to as the causation element and it is vital to establish. If a physician has to obtain an xray of a broken arm, they have to put the arm in a casting and correctly set it. If the doctor did not do so and the patient suffered an unavoidable loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.
Causation
Attorney malpractice claims rely on the evidence that proves that the lawyer's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. Legal malpractice attorneys claims can be filed by the injured party when, for instance, the attorney fails to file the suit within the statutes of limitations and the case being lost forever.
However, it's important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers constitute wrong. Planning and strategy errors aren't usually considered to be a sign of the definition of malpractice. Attorneys have a wide choice of discretion when it comes to making decisions, as long as they're in the right place.
The law also grants attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of clients as long as the failure was not unreasonable or negligence. Failing to discover important information or documents like medical reports or witness statements can be a case of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice lawsuit include a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as failing to submit a survival count in a wrongful death case or the continual and extended failure to communicate with clients.
It is also important to remember that it must be established that, if not the negligence of the lawyer, the plaintiff would have won the case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes it difficult to file an action for legal malpractice. This is why it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.
Damages
To prevail in a legal malpractice case, plaintiffs must show financial losses resulting from the actions of an attorney. This should be proved in a lawsuit with evidence such as expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney or billing records, and other documentation. In addition the plaintiff must show that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is known as the proximate cause.
Malpractice can occur in many different ways. Some of the more common types of malpractice include the failure to meet a deadline, such as the statute of limitations, failure to conduct a check on conflicts or any other due diligence on the case, not applying the law to the client's situation and breaching a fiduciary responsibility (i.e. mixing trust funds with an attorney's personal accounts) and mishandling the case, or not communicating with a client.
Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. They compensate the victim for the out-of-pocket expenses and losses, including medical and hospital bills, costs of equipment required to aid in healing, as well as lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages such as pain and discomfort and loss of enjoyment their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.
Legal malpractice cases usually involve claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The former compensates victims for the losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, while the latter is designed to discourage future malpractice by the defendant.