Legal System, Legal Theory, and the Litigation Process
Structure and sources of law
Courts divide into federal and state systems, each with trial and appellate levels. Subject-matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, and venue determine where a case may proceed. Sources of law stack: constitutions, statutes, regulations, administrative guidance, and common law, with stare decisis binding lower courts to higher courts in the same hierarchy. The LNC must know the procedural posture - pleading, discovery, summary judgment, trial, appeal - because what is useful changes at each stage.
Elements create the analytical frame
Most malpractice claims are negligence: duty, breach (deviation from the standard of care), actual and proximate causation, and damages. Each element must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence in civil cases - not beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the criminal standard. Related doctrines include res ipsa loquitur, res judicata, collateral estoppel, respondeat superior, corporate negligence, informed consent, and products liability. Affirmative defenses (comparative or contributory fault, assumption of risk, immunity, statute of limitations or repose) reframe the whole analysis.
Time and forums
Statutes of limitation bar the claim; statutes of repose set an outer limit regardless of discovery. Tolling rules, minority, and discovery rules vary by state. Alternative dispute resolution, arbitration clauses, and administrative review panels may precede or replace litigation.
Traps: treating a bad outcome as proof of negligence; confusing the civil standard of proof with the criminal standard; assuming limitation periods are uniform; conflating limitation with repose.
Worked example: if injury occurred two years before filing and the state allows a two-year limitation plus a one-year discovery rule, first fix the date of the alleged negligent act, then ask what the patient knew and when. Dates drive everything downstream.