Disturbingly, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will consider approving “a mere error in judgment” does not constitute negligence jury instruction. In other words, doctors can make mistakes as long as the jury wants to understand why the doctor made the mistake and can tolerate it. The case on appeal involves an…
Honestly, I have always figured they did. My thinking was that it is basic economics. Decrease the upside risk and premiums will come down. Now, I’m not so sure. Certainly, at a glance, a cap on noneconomic damages appears to be correlated with keeping health care malpractice premiums down. But…
Becoming a Special Focus Facility (SFF) is no honor in the nursing home industry. To be deemed an SFF is to be branded one of the worst nursing homes in the state when it comes to violations. Amid continuous speculation on the level of care being provided in nursing homes…
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released a new study on May 23rd about restraints in nursing homes. The article, Effects of a Guideline-Based Multicomponent Intervention on Use of Physical Restraints in Nursing Homes, detailed the problems with physical restraints in nursing homes—they are unsafe and often illegal…
The Connecticut Appellate Court ruled that a trial court was within its discretion in precluding two expert witnesses from providing testimony in a wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit involving a tragic stillbirth. This case provides a teachable moment – to beat that phrase into the ground – for Maryland medical…
A plaintiff’s medical malpractice lawsuit against doctors she believes caused her to go blind was revived last week by the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The court remanded her malpractice action that had ended in a defense verdict. This is one of those rare cases when a motion for reconsideration actually…
What is the value of a wrongful death in a medical malpractice case? Ultimately, the value is what the jury says the value of the life was. Of course, the jury’s value is different from the value that the plaintiffs are actually allowed to receive. The pain and suffering cap…
A few facts from Ezra Klein’s Washington Post article today: Congressional Budget Office (CBO) took a careful look at the evidence on defensive medicine and concluded that aggressive reforms to the medical malpractice system “would reduce total national health care spending by about 0.5 percent.” (No one argues – at…
After a twelve year lawsuit (which includes a mistrial and appeals), the verdict is in. The estate of a thirty-nine-year-old man has been awarded $1.45 million in punitive damages. The man, a paraplegic because of a shooting as a teenager, presented to a hospital in 1999, complaining of abdominal pain,…
A three-year legal battle has ended in a $17.9 million settlement, though the money is nothing in comparison to the woman’s loss. The facts here are absolutely tragic. In 2008, a now 35-year-old mother of two presented to a New York emergency room. She was diagnosed with a kidney stone…