5.2 Professional Malpractice

The definition: the professional's breach of the duty of care — the failure to meet the professional standard, causing the client's-or-patient's harm. The elements (the negligence ladder — Unit 3.1.3 in the professional's dress): The duty — the professional relationship's establishment (the retainer, the consultation — the doctor-patient, the lawyer-client, the auditor-company faces); The breach — the standard's failure (the expert's proof; the practice's departure); The causation — the harm from the breach (the "but-for" and the proximate faces — the outcome's causation the hardest proof); The damage — the recognized loss. The malpractice's faces (the general heads): The competence's failure — the wrong diagnosis, the missed limitation, the audit's error; The communication's failure — the uninformed consent, the unexplained risk, the unheard instruction; The diligence's failure — the neglected file, the missed deadline, the abandoned matter; The loyalty's failure — the conflict's harm, the confidence's betrayal (the ethics-tort overlap). The defences' faces (the professional's answers): the standard's compliance (the respectable-body-of-practice face — the honest difference of professional opinion not a breach); the patient's-or-client's own contribution (the ignored advice, the withheld information); the inherent-risk (the recognized complication — the no-negligence outcome); the causation's break; the limitation's bar.