- malpractice
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mal·prac·tice /ˌmal-'prak-təs/ n: negligence, misconduct, lack of ordinary skill, or a breach of duty in the performance of a professional service (as in medicine) resulting in injury or loss
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam-Webster. 1996.
- malpractice
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noun
breach of practice, breach of profession, carelessness, culpable professional neglect, dereliction of duty, improper professional action, improper professional conduct, injudicious treatment, injurious treatment by a professional, misconduct, professional error of judgment, professional laxness, professional misconduct, professional neglect, professional negligence, unprofessional conduct, unprofessional treatment, violation of professional code, violation of professional duty
associated concepts: legal malpractice, medical malpractice, professional malpractice
II
index
delinquency (failure of duty), disregard (omission), guilt, misapplication, misconduct, misdeed, misdoing, misprision, misusage, misuse, offense, wrong
Burton's Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006
- malpractice
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n.Incompetence or improper conduct by a professional performing professional duties.
The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008.
- malpractice
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The delivery of substandard care or services by a lawyer, doctor, dentist, accountant, or other professional. Generally, malpractice occurs when a professional fails to provide the quality of care that should reasonably be expected in the circumstances, with the result that a patient or client is harmed. Such an error or omission may be through negligence, ignorance (when the professional should have known), or intentional wrongdoing. In the area of legal malpractice, the claimant must prove two things to show harm: first, that the lawyer failed to meet the standard of professional competence; and second, that if the lawyer had handled the work properly, you would have won the original case. (See also: errors and omissions)Category: Accidents & InjuriesCategory: Small Claims Court & Lawsuits
Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Thompson Hill. 2009.
- malpractice
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n. The negligent actions of a professional, such as a doctor or lawyer, as evinced by a failure to perform services consistent with the standards of such profession.
Webster's New World Law Dictionary. Susan Ellis Wild. 2000.
- malpractice
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The breach by a member of a profession of either a standard of care or a standard of conduct.
Dictionary from West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005.
- malpractice
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The breach by a member of a profession of either a standard of care or a standard of conduct.II Any professional misconduct.
Short Dictionary of (mostly American) Legal Terms and Abbreviations.
- malpractice
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n.An act or continuing conduct of a professional which does not meet the standard of professional competence and results in provable damages to his/her client or patient. Such an error or omission may be through negligence, ignorance (when the professional should have known), or intentional wrongdoing. However, malpractice does not include the exercise of professional judgment even when the results are detrimental to the client or patient. Except in cases of extremely obvious or intentional wrongs, in order to prove malpractice there must be testimony of an expert as to the acceptable standard of care applied to the specific act or conduct which is claimed to be malpractice and testimony of the expert that the professional did not meet that standard. The defendant then can produce his/her own expert to counter that testimony. Professions which are subject to lawsuits based on claims of malpractice include lawyers, physicians, dentists, hospitals, accountants, architects, engineers and real estate brokers. In some states in order to file an action for malpractice against a medical caregiver, there must be a written demand or notice which gives the physician or hospital a chance to settle the matter before a suit is filed. In actions against attorneys it is mandatory that the plaintiff prove that the error, if any, caused damages. This means that a lawsuit, claim or negotiation the attorney was handling would have resulted in a win or better recovery except for the malpractice. Thus, there is a requirement of proving the original "case within the case" during the trial of the malpractice claim. Contrary to public perception, substantial judgments in malpractice actions are rare, with studies showing that only a small percentage of the claims result in recovery for the allegedly aggrieved client or patient. The principal reason is that most cries of malpractice are unfounded and are based on unhappiness with the result of the original services no matter how well handled, a breakdown in communication between attorney or doctor and client or patient, anger with the professional, retaliation for attempts to collect unpaid fees or greed.See also: errors and omissions
Law dictionary. EdwART. 2013.
