11 "Faux Pas" That Are Actually Acceptable To Make With Your Malpractice Attorney

Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are required to fulfill a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and they are expected act with a degree of diligence, skill and care. But, as with all professionals attorneys make mistakes.

There are many mistakes made by lawyers are a result of malpractice. To demonstrate legal malpractice, an victim must prove that there was breach of duty, causation, breach and damage. Let's examine each of these elements.

Duty

Doctors and medical professionals take an oath to use their skill and training to treat patients, not cause additional harm. The legal right of a patient to compensation for injuries suffered due to medical malpractice is based on the concept of the duty of care. Your attorney will determine if the actions of your doctor violated the duty of care and whether these violations caused injury or illness.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer needs to show that a medical professional had an agreement with you in which they had a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with a reasonable level of expertise and care. This relationship may be proven by eyewitness testimony, physician-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors who have similar education, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also need to demonstrate that the medical professional violated their duty to care in not adhering to the accepted standards in their field. This is usually described as negligence. Your lawyer will evaluate what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in a similar situation.

Your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly led to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your attorney will rely on evidence like your medical documents, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant's inability to adhere to the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor has a duty to patients of care that conform to professional standards in medical practice. If a doctor fails to adhere to these standards and the failure results in an injury that is medically negligent, negligence could occur. Expert evidence from medical professionals who possess similar qualifications, training or experience can help determine the quality of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies can also be used to define what doctors must do for specific types of patients.

To be successful in a malpractice case it must be proved that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty of care and that the breach was the sole cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation component, and it is vital to establish. If a doctor has to perform an x-ray on a broken arm, they must place the arm in a cast and correctly set it. If the doctor was unable to do so and the patient suffered a permanent loss of function of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that the attorney committed mistakes that led to financial losses to the client. Legal malpractice claims can be brought by the person who was injured in the event that, for instance, the attorney fails to file the lawsuit within the timeframe of the statute of limitations and the case being forever lost.

It is important to understand that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of wrong. Strategies and mistakes are not generally considered to be malpractice and lawyers have the ability in making judgment calls so long as they are reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers the right to refuse to conduct discovery on behalf of their clients provided that the decision was not arbitrary or negligence. Inability to find important information or documents, such as medical or witness statements could be a sign of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice include a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as omitting to submit a survival count in a wrongful death case or the frequent and persistent inability to contact a client.

It's also important to note that it has to be proven that, had it not been the lawyer's negligence, the plaintiff would have won the case. The plaintiff's claim for malpractice is deemed invalid when it isn't proven. This requirement makes it difficult to bring an action for legal malpractice. It's essential to choose an experienced attorney to represent you.

Damages

To prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit, a plaintiff must demonstrate actual financial losses that result from the actions of the attorney. In a lawsuit, this needs to be proven through evidence, such as expert testimony and correspondence between the attorney and the client. A plaintiff must also prove that a reasonable attorney would have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the most common mistakes are: failing to meet a deadline or statute of limitations; not conducting an investigation into a conflict in cases; applying law incorrectly to a client's situation; or breaking an obligation of fiduciary (i.e. the commingling of funds from a trust account with the attorney's personal accounts as well as not communicating with the client are just a few examples of misconduct.

In the majority of medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff will seek compensatory damages. These compensations are intended to compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses as well as expenses such as hospital and medical bills, equipment costs to aid in recovery and lost wages. In addition, victims may seek non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and emotional suffering.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases there are lawsuits for punitive as well as compensatory damages. The former compensates the victim for losses caused by the negligence of the attorney, whereas the latter is intended to discourage future malpractice by the defendant.