Types of malpractice: medical, legal, accounting, and more.

Malpractice is the legal term for professional negligence. It applies when someone who holds themselves out as a trained professional fails to meet the standard that a reasonably careful member of their profession would meet, and that failure causes real harm.

The same four questions sit behind most types: did the professional owe you a duty, did they fall short of the standard of their field, did that cause the harm, and what did the harm cost you? Our medical malpractice guide walks through them in detail.

There’s no fixed number of malpractice types. Any profession with its own standard of care can give rise to one. The sections below cover the ones people ask about most.

Medical malpractice is harm caused when a doctor, nurse, hospital, or other healthcare provider’s care falls below the accepted standard. It’s the type this site is built around. Common concerns include:

• Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
• Surgical errors, including anesthesia
• Hospital and emergency room care
• Birth injuries
• Medication errors
• Lab, imaging, and pathology results that were misread or never followed up
• Treatment given without explaining its risks or alternatives (informed consent)

Healthcare malpractice reaches beyond doctors and hospitals:

• Dental: dentists and oral surgeons, for example nerve damage, a wrong-tooth extraction, or a missed oral cancer.
• Nursing homes and long-term care: falls, bedsores, dehydration, and neglect. These often follow their own rules, separate from other medical claims.
• Pharmacy: the wrong drug or strength dispensed, or a dangerous interaction missed.
• Mental health: psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists.
• Chiropractic and physical therapy: injuries from treatment, or conditions that should have been sent to a physician.

If your concern is about medical care of any kind, you can tell us what happened.

Legal malpractice is when a lawyer’s handling of a matter falls below the standard of the profession and costs the client. Examples include missing a filing deadline, a conflict of interest, settling without the client’s consent, or mishandling client funds.

A legal malpractice claim usually has to show that the matter would have turned out better if it had been handled properly, sometimes called proving “the case within the case.”

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.

Accounting malpractice covers CPAs, auditors, and tax preparers whose work falls below professional standards. Examples include tax errors that lead to penalties, an audit that misses fraud, or financial statements that others relied on.

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.

Financial advisors and brokers can be responsible for recommending unsuitable investments, trading excessively in an account, or putting their own interests ahead of the client’s. Many of these disputes go to arbitration rather than court, depending on the account agreement.

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.

Architects and engineers can be responsible when a design defect, a code violation, or poor construction oversight leads to property damage, injury, or costly repairs.

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.

• Insurance agents and brokers: failing to get the coverage a client asked for, leaving a gap that only shows up after a loss.
• Real estate agents, appraisers, home inspectors, and title agents: undisclosed defects, a negligent appraisal, a missed inspection finding, or a title error.

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.

Veterinarians can be responsible for a misdiagnosis, a surgical or anesthesia error, or poor aftercare. How the law values the loss of a pet varies a great deal from state to state.

We don’t connect people for this type of concern. Your state bar association’s lawyer referral service is a good place to start.