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Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients and they are expected act with skill, diligence and care. Attorneys make mistakes, just like every other professional.

Not all mistakes made by attorneys are malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an aggrieved party has to prove obligation, breach, causation and damages. Let's take a look at each of these aspects.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors take an oath that they will use their skill and training to cure patients, not to cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries sustained due to medical malpractice is based on the notion of the duty of care. Your lawyer can assist you determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and if these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer must prove that the medical professional was bound by the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. Proving that this relationship existed may require evidence such as your doctor-patient records, eyewitness statements and experts from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty to care by failing to follow the accepted standards in their field. This is often called negligence. Your attorney will evaluate the defendant's conduct to what a reasonable person would take in the same scenario.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the defendant's breach directly contributed to your injury or loss. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence such as your doctor-patient documents, witness statements and expert testimony to show that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care in your case was the direct cause of your loss or injury.

Breach

A doctor owes patients duties of care that are consistent with the highest standards of medical professionalism. If a doctor fails to meet these standards and that failure causes injury, then medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have the same training, certifications, skills and experience can help determine the standard of care in a particular situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also determine what doctors should do for certain types of patients.

To win a malpractice case the case must be proved that the doctor breached his or his duty of care and that this breach was a direct cause of an injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation factor and it is essential to prove it. For instance an injured arm requires an xray, the doctor has to properly set the arm and place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the physician failed to do so and the patient suffered a permanent loss of use of the arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that the attorney's mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For example the lawyer fails to file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, resulting in the case being lost for ever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

It is crucial to realize that not all mistakes by lawyers are considered to be malpractice. Planning and strategy errors are not typically considered to be misconduct. Attorneys have a wide range of discretion in making decisions as long as they're able to make them in a reasonable manner.

Likewise, the law gives attorneys a wide range of options to refuse to perform discovery on behalf of a client, so long as it was not negligent or unreasonable. Legal malpractice can be caused by not obtaining crucial documents or facts, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice attorney include a failure to add certain defendants or claims for example, like forgetting to include a survival count in a wrongful death lawsuit, or the repeated and extended failure to communicate with clients.

It's also important to keep in mind that it has to be proven that if it weren't the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the case. If not, the plaintiff's claims for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice attorneys lawsuits difficult. Therefore, it's important to find an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To win a legal malpractice lawsuit plaintiffs must show financial losses incurred by an attorney's actions. In a lawsuit, this must be proved with evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the client and attorney. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable attorney could have prevented the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence. This is known as proximate causation.

It can happen in many different ways. The most frequent mistakes include: not meeting a deadline or statute of limitations; failing to conduct an examination of a conflict on an instance; applying the law incorrectly to a client's situation; or breaking the fiduciary obligation (i.e. commingling trust account funds with attorney's personal accounts), mishandling of a case, and not communicating with the client.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensatory damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as expenses like hospital and medical bills, the cost of equipment to aid in recovery, and lost wages. Additionally, victims may be able to claim non-economic damages such as suffering and suffering as well as loss of enjoyment life, and emotional distress.

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