Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys are bound by a fiduciary obligation to their clients, and they must act with a high degree of skill, diligence and care. Attorneys make mistakes just like any other professional.

Some mistakes made by attorneys are legal malpractice. To prove negligence in a legal sense, the aggrieved must show the duty, breach of obligation, causation, as well as damages. Let's look at each one of these aspects.

Duty

Medical professionals and doctors swear an oath to use their skill and training to treat patients, not causing further harm. Duty of care is the basis for the right of patients to receive compensation in the event of injury due to medical negligence. Your attorney can assist you determine whether or not your doctor's actions breached this duty of care, and if these breaches caused injury or illness to you.

Your lawyer has to prove that the medical professional in question owed you the duty of a fiduciary to perform with reasonable skill and care. This can be proved through eyewitness testimony, doctor-patient records, and expert testimony of doctors with similar educational, experience and training.

Your lawyer will also have to prove that the medical professional violated their duty of care by not submitting to the accepted standards of practice in their area of expertise. This is usually referred to by the term negligence. Your attorney will compare the actions of the defendant to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer must show that the defendant's breach of duty directly resulted in injury or loss to you. This is known as causation. Your attorney will use evidence such as your medical documents, witness statements, and Vimeo 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 has a responsibility of care to his patients which reflects professional medical standards. If a physician fails to live up to those standards and the failure results in injury, then medical malpractice and negligence could occur. Expert testimony from medical professionals who have similar training, certificates, skills and experience can help determine the level of care for a specific situation. Federal and state laws and institute policies also define what doctors must do for certain types of patients.

To be successful in a malpractice case it must be established that the doctor acted in violation of his or her duty to take care of patients and that the breach was the primary cause of an injury. In legal terms, this is known as the causation component and it is essential that it is established. If a physician has to take an x-ray of an injured arm, they must place the arm in a cast and then correctly set it. If the doctor did not do so and the patient suffered an irreparable loss of use of the arm, then malpractice could have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims are based on evidence that shows the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For example when a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost for ever and the victim can file legal malpractice claims.

It is important to realize that not all mistakes made by attorneys constitute mistakes that constitute malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning aren't usually considered to be a violation of the law attorneys are given plenty of discretion in making judgment calls so long as they're reasonable.

The law also allows attorneys ample discretion to refrain from performing discovery on behalf of a client provided that the failure was not unreasonable or negligence. Failure to uncover important facts or documents like medical reports or witness statements or medical reports, could be an instance of legal malpractice. Other examples of malpractice are the failure to include certain defendants or claims, like the mistake of not remembering a survival number for the case of wrongful death or the inability to communicate with clients.

It is also important to remember the fact that the plaintiff has to show that if it wasn't due to the lawyer's negligent behavior they would have won their case. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice claims complicated. It's crucial to hire an experienced attorney.

Damages

A plaintiff must show that the attorney's actions have caused actual financial losses in order to win a legal malpractice suit. This has to be demonstrated in a lawsuit with evidence like expert testimony, correspondence between the client and attorney as well as billing records and other records. A plaintiff must also demonstrate that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the damage caused by the negligence of the lawyer. This is known as proximate cause.

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

Medical malpractice lawsuits typically include claims for compensatory damages. These compensations compensate the victim for expenses out of pocket and losses such as medical and hospitals bills, the cost of equipment to help recover and lost wages. Victims may also claim non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain, loss of enjoyment of their lives, as well as emotional anxiety.

In a lot of legal tukwila malpractice law firm cases, there are cases for Vimeo punitive and compensatory damages. The former compensates the victim for the damages caused by negligence on the part of the attorney and the latter is intended to deter future malpractice on the part of the defendant.