Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers may help represent professional medical malpractice lawsuits which comprise the majority of lawsuits brought on in this country. This is not to say that medical professionals are more prone to committing malpractice, it is the opposite, and they are more prone to being a target of malpractice lawsuits. However, the number of malpractice lawsuits against other professionals is increasing; other health professionals such as dentists, psychologist, nurses and physical therapists could all be sued for medical malpractice, improper or unethical professional conduct.

There are four elements necessary to prove negligence in a medical malpractice lawsuit and they are: breach of duty, duty of care, proximate cause and injury.  A person accused of medical malpractice could defend him or her by showing that one of these elements is missing and/or by establishing an affirmative defense. An affirmative defense is the legal argument that admits the existence of the required elements, but maintains that the plaintiff is also culpable.

A Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney explains duty of care which is the most important of the four elements required in a medical malpractice lawsuit.  The duty of care is assumed once a physician or health care professional agrees to diagnose and treat a patient. This means that the health care professional must treat the patient with at least the same level of care as a reasonably competent health care professional.

Breach of duty is unlike ordinary negligence a case, proving that a healthcare professional breached his or her duty involves showing what a reasonable competent health professional would do in a similar situation.  Unfortunately, most juries and judges do not know what acceptable medical practice is.  As a result, medical malpractice lawsuits often become battles between medical experts who testify whether or not the doctor breached his or her duty of care.

Proximate cause is defined as legally a cause that in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any intervening events, produces an injury, and without which, the injury would not have occurred.  A judge and jury may not find a defendant liable if there is not a clear line of causation between the defendants act and the plaintiff’s injury.