Watch Out: What Malpractice Attorney Is Taking Over And What Can We Do About It

Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys have a fiduciary connection with their clients and are required to act with care, diligence and competence. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

There are many mistakes made by lawyers are a result of malpractice. To prove that legal malpractice has occurred, the aggrieved party has to prove duty, breach, causation and damage. Let’s look at each of these aspects.

Duty-Free

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to apply their education and experience to help patients and not cause further harm. The legal right of a patient to be compensated for injuries sustained from medical grandview malpractice law firm rests on the concept of the duty of care. Your lawyer can help determine whether or not the actions of your doctor violated this duty of care, and whether those breaches caused injury or illness to you.

To prove a duty of care, your lawyer has to prove that a medical professional has an agreement with you and had a fiduciary obligation to perform their duties with a reasonable level of expertise and care. Proving that this relationship existed may require evidence, such as your doctor-patient records, eyewitness statements and expert testimony from doctors with similar knowledge, experience, and education.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not adhering to the accepted standards of care in their field. This is often called negligence. Your lawyer will examine the defendant’s actions to what a reasonable person would take in the same scenario.

Finally, your lawyer must prove that the defendant’s lapse of duty directly caused injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will make use of evidence such as your doctor-patient documents, witness statements and expert testimony to prove that the defendant’s failure to live up to the standard of care in your case was a direct cause of your injury or loss.

Breach

A doctor is required to perform a duty of care for his patients that corresponds to professional medical standards. If a doctor does not meet those standards and that failure results in injury, medical malpractice or negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certifications as well as experience and qualifications can help determine the level of care in a given situation. State and federal laws, as well as institute policies, determine what doctors are required to do for certain types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit the case must be proved that the doctor violated his or their duty of care, and that this breach was a direct cause of injury. This is referred to in legal terms as the causation element and it is vital that it be established. For instance an injured arm requires an xray the doctor has to properly set the arm and then place it in a cast to ensure proper healing. If the doctor did not do so and the patient suffered a permanent loss of the use of the arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on the evidence that proves that the lawyer’s mistakes caused financial losses to the client. For example the lawyer does not file a lawsuit within the prescribed time of limitations, leading to the case being lost forever, the injured party can file legal malpractice claims.

It is important to realize that not all mistakes made by lawyers are a sign of illegal. The mistakes that involve strategy and planning aren’t usually considered to be a violation of the law and lawyers have lots of freedom in making judgment calls so long as they’re reasonable.

The law also allows lawyers considerable latitude to not perform discovery for a client, so long as the error was not unreasonable or a result of negligence. Legal malpractice can be committed when a lawyer fails to find important documents or evidence, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are the inability to add certain defendants or claims, like failing to include a survival count for an unjustly-dead case, or the repeated failure to communicate with clients.

It is also important to remember that it must be established that but for the lawyer’s negligence, the plaintiff would have won the case. The claim of the plaintiff for malpractice will be dismissed in the event that it is not proved. This makes bringing legal malpractice claims difficult. It is essential to choose an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the lawyer’s actions led to actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice suit. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be proven with evidence like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer would have avoided the harm caused by the attorney’s negligence. This is called proximate causation.

It can happen in many different ways. Some of the most common kinds of malpractice are the failure to meet a deadline, for example, a statute of limitations, a failure to conduct a check on conflicts or other due diligence of the case, not applying law to a client’s situation, breaching a fiduciary duty (i.e. commingling trust account funds with personal attorney accounts), mishandling of an instance, and not communicating with clients.

Medical malpractice suits typically involve claims for compensation damages. These compensate the victim for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, including medical and hospital bills, the cost of equipment that aids in healing, as well as lost wages. Additionally, victims may claim non-economic damages, such as suffering and suffering or loss of enjoyment life and emotional distress.

In a lot of legal malpractice cases, there are cases for punitive and compensatory damages. The former compensates victims for losses resulting from the attorney’s negligence, while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant.