An increasing number of human services professionals find themselves involved in malpractice lawsuits. Although most professionals run a very small risk of being sued, the threat of litigation has led to an increased interest in ethics. Practitioners who are familiar with the ethical standards of their professions, and who work diligently to adhere to them, need not succumb to excessive caution in exercising sound professional judgment concerning their clients.
The human services professional has both an ethical and a professional responsibility. For example, the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) Code of Ethics establishes that profession's accepted principles of ethics. In terms of professional responsibilities, the courts have established that practitioners must meet the standard of what a reasonable professional would do under similar circumstances.
Malpractice occurs when a professional's failure to perform his or her responsibilities results in injury or loss to a client. Malpractice is considered a form of negligence, a violation of a client's rights. The client's rights may be violated by commission or omission. Acts of commission are defined as misfeasance or malfeasance. Misfeasance involves doing a proper act in a wrongful or injurious manner. Malfeasance involves doing an unlawful or wrongful act. Nonfeasance involves omission, the failure to perform certain duties (Reamer, 1995, p. 595).
For a malpractice claim to be valid, four elements must be present: duty, breach of duty, injury, and causation. First, a client-practitioner relationship must have existed at the time of the alleged malpractice. Second, the practitioner must have been negligent through either an act of commission or omission. Third, the client suffered some harm or injury. Fourth, the harm or injury occurred as a result of the practitioner's negligence of duty (Corey et al., 1993; Reamer, 1995; Loewenberg & Dolgoff...