There are great deal of different types of legally recognizable claims that arise out of some sort of negligent conduct nowadays. Most fall under the general category of personal injury. Within that category is a subcategory known as malpractice. Malpractice exists when certain types of professionals breach a duty of care that results in some sort of injury or legal harm to one to whom a duty was owed. This subcategory has lent itself to a special field of practice: malpractice lawyers.

In law, the majority of personal injury based claims are based upon some sort of act of negligence. Malpractice is a form of legal negligence, which occurs when a special duty of care is breached resulting in injury, whether physical, emotional or financial, to the plaintiff. In medical malpractice, a claim may arise when a physician acted negligently and failed to follow the generally accepted standard of care, which caused injury to a patient. Similarly, dental malpractice occurs when a dentist breaches his duty of care pursuant to generally accepted dental standards, which results in an injury to the patient. You can find many law firms, which exclusively handle medical malpractice claims, as well as other law firms with medical malpractice lawyers assigned solely to these types of claims.

The rights associated with pursuing medical malpractice claims were created to protect medical patients from enduring unsafe practices at the hands of medical and dental professionals and institutions, for example, hospitals and medical clinics. There are several legal injuries that are sought to be redressed in a medical malpractice claim, but the main claims seek monetary damages for pain and suffering as a result of physical injury, emotional distress and sometimes loss of quality of life, depending upon the injury. For legal malpractice, the claim is typically limited to the monetary damages suffered as a result of the loss of a legal claim during the original legal representation. Malpractice lawyers can guide each claimant through the various types of claims in each malpractice category and identify those damages, which may and may not be recovered in a malpractice case.

Another type of malpractice deals with legal negligence. These claims come about when a client has hired a lawyer to represent him in a legal matter, that lawyer is negligent in his representation of the client to the point that he has violated the standard of care required, thus causing the client to lose the case and suffer monetary damage. Malpractice lawyers engaged in these types of cases typically must prove that had the original lawyer properly handled the original case, the client would have prevailed and not suffered the resulting monetary damage. If successful, that monetary damage will be recovered along with the costs incurred in pursuing the malpractice claim. This can be a difficult burden to overcome, however.

Not all claims of injury at the hands of a medical, dental or legal professional qualify as true malpractice, however. Like any type of law, the act of negligence must legally be malpractice, which means the act complained of must fall below the required standard of care in that particular field and instance. When assessing and litigating such cases, malpractice lawyers typically hire individuals, who ultimately serve as expert witnesses in the case, who are experts in that particular field who will explain the applicable standard of care, review the conduct by the professional in questions and the resulting injury and opine whether or not the standard of care in this instance was violated.