Personal Injury Lawyers – Resources, Professional Malpractice, Medical Malpractice, Negligence

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Aviation Accident Law

Personal Injury Law - a tort law - is a complex umbrella of interrelating laws designed to prevent harm or compensate for harm to a person or property. This harm or injury may be a matter of physical injury, mental injury or financial injury. Medical malpractice or medical negligence and legal malpractice or legal negligence lawsuits are guided by personal injury law.

A civil wrong, or a tort, is recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit. Sometimes these wrongs are considered crimes and punishable with imprisonment, but the primary aim of tort law is to provide relief through compensation to injured parties for the damages incurred. Among the types of recoverable damages are: loss of earnings capacity, pain and suffering, and reasonable medical expenses. They include both present and future expected losses.

There are many types of professional malpractice or negligence. Any profession may be held to a reasonable professional standard for their work and their advice. Accountants, C.P.A.'s or stockbrokers can cause great harm and damage financially through bookkeeping negligence or erroneous tax preparation. Architects' plans may be faulty, causing property loss and financial harm. Surveyors' errors may be costly to correct and may prevent the resale of private property. Some types of professional malpractice are actually white collar crimes or types of fraud.

Medical or legal negligence occurs through unreasonable negligence or, more commonly, failure to provide the expected standard of care in a given community. Medical or legal malpractice may involve criminal negligence, malicious intention or strict liability. Tort law is state law created through state courts and generally using the Restatement of Torts (2nd) as an influential guide.

In the medical field, when a doctor or health care professional agrees to diagnose or treat a patient, he or she has assumed a duty of care toward that patient. The health care provider may not be the doctor, nurse or a member of the staff. It is possible that the individual is a lab or x-ray technician with certain qualifications for operating advanced medical equipment or interpreting results of tests.

Similar standards apply to an attorney who has agreed to represent someone legally. In such an instance, the duty of representation is assumed and a standard of the profession is expected.

Malpractice laws are extremely complex. Causing an injury may not be legal malpractice. Ethically and legally there may be conflicts in duties. For example, confidentiality between doctor and patient, attorney and client can conflict with the doctor's or attorney's duty to the community. Does the patient's basic right to privacy mean that no one advises the patient's partner of a diagnosis such as AIDS? Does the client's right to privacy mean that his current partner not be advised of a tax lien against their new business? A doctor is legally obligated to report gunshot wounds or suspected child abuse to authorities. An attorney is legally obligated to report certain facts to the courts. For these reasons, most cases are brought before an arbitration panel prior to court.

It is always advisable to be represented by an attorney during arbitration.

A facility or company may also be liable for malpractice. Many times, a hospital, an ambulance company, a pharmacy or a nursing home will be subject to tort law - even a class action lawsuit.

Some examples of medical malpractice or negligence are misdiagnoses which result in delayed or inappropriate treatment. Lifelong disabilities can result from negligent surgical treatment, dangerous delivery procedures for newborns and/or incorrect and sometimes deadly prescriptions.

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