If you are a licensed professional who has been sued (or expect to be sued) due to a purported failure to meet the applicable standard of care, then you could be faced with penalties that include suspension, the loss of your license, fines, and substantial damages owed to whoever sustained damages as a result of the standard of care violation.
Professional liability disputes are quite complicated, by nature, and require a thorough and detail-oriented approach — expert witnesses must be identified and coordinated to ensure that you have sufficient supportive testimony to persuade the court, and a high volume of documentation must be gathered, evaluated, and presented in such a way that further enhances your arguments.
Here at O’Connor & O’Connor, LLC, we routinely represent licensed professionals (including physicians, attorneys, engineers, architects, accountants, and general contractors) in disputes based on their purported violations. We understand how frustrating, frightening, and overwhelming it can be to sustain a challenge to one’s professional conduct. Contact us for guidance on how to proceed with your defense.
Standard of Care is Central to Such Disputes
Standard of care lies at the very core of any professional liability dispute. Liability will turn on whether the defendant has violated the applicable standard of care. In evaluating the defendant’s conduct, courts generally assess whether another professional (who is similarly situated) would have acted the same, or would have conducted themselves differently. For example, in a medical malpractice case where a physician fails to diagnose the patient’s cancer at an early stage, the court will have to evaluate whether another physician (of roughly the same experience, training, specialization, and access to medical resources) would have correctly diagnosed the cancer at such an early stage. If so, then the court may deem the physician professionally liable for medical malpractice.
Importantly, the standard of care varies depending on the circumstances. A number of factors influence the standard of care, from the professional’s unique training, specialization, and background, to the difficulty of a particular task. Your attorney will work with various experts to build a corpus of evidence that proves that the task at-hand was inherently difficult and that most other similarly-situated professionals would have done the same thing. This sort of advocacy is very fact-specific, and will require a detailed and comprehensive assessment of the case, as well as other similar cases.
Consult O’Connor & O’Connor, LLC for Comprehensive Legal Assistance
Here at O’Connor & O’Connor, LLC, we have a legacy going back nearly a century, and over time, our attorneys have built a reputation as sophisticated and practically-minded litigators who are capable of advancing their client’s interests in a variety of complex disputes, including professional liability disputes. We see our clients as collaborative partners, and as such, we work closely with them throughout the dispute to ensure that we have the information and insight necessary to effectively advocate on their behalf.
If you’d like to learn more, call us at 407-843-2100 or send us a message online to schedule a consultation.