On Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision that a father’s wrongful death medical malpractice claim on behalf of his 16-year-old son was time-barred. In Runstrom v. Allen, the plaintiff’ son sustained a broken femur in an ATV accident (I wonder if it was a Yahama Rhino…
There is an article in the New York Times today that concludes that it is best to settle most accident, malpractice, and breach of contract claims based on a recent study. The basis for the conclusion is a study suggesting that defendants made the wrong decision by proceeding to trial,…
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decided whether a debtor’s claims for legal relief that arose after the confirmation but before the completion of his plan to pay creditors are property of the estate, under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. Here, after the debtors’ joint Chapter 13 plan was…
The Baltimore Sun reports today the medical malpractice rates continue to fall. My favorite line from the article: “Since that deal was struck, claims payouts have fallen sharply, sparking debate over whether a malpractice crisis ever existed.” Hmmm, I hadn’t thought about that. I’m preparing for trial on Monday and…
While I was on vacation, I promised more commentary on Matsuyama v. Birnbaum, a landmark medical malpractice opinion on loss of chance from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In Matsuyama, the 42-year-old Plaintiff’s decedent, Mr. Matsuyama, saw the Defendant doctor, a board-certified internist, and his primary care doctor, for a…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court – Massachusetts’ highest court – ruled yesterday that courts can hold medical doctors liable for medical malpractice that reduces a patient’s survival chances even if the patient’s chances of recovery was already less than 50 percent. Maryland also has a loss of chance case pending…
Medical Justice is what appears to be a new organization whose aims are to “‘prevent, deter and respond’ to frivolous malpractice lawsuits.” This seems like a goal we—including good plaintiffs’ medical malpractice lawyers—can agree on, right? Frivolous lawsuits hurt everyone. For a cost of $625 to $1990 a year, Medical…
Medical malpractice lawyers in New York today released incredible surveillance camera video from Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, showing a 49-year-old woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while being completely ignored by the hospital staff. The video shows the woman keeling over and falling…
Medical malpractice victims suffered a setback in Kentucky last week when the Supreme Court of Kentucky reversed the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling adopting the “lost or diminished chance of recovery” in medical malpractice cases in Kemper v. Gordon. (This defense verdict was, however, reversed on other grounds because the…
The University of Chicago Journal of Legal Studies published an interesting article on medical malpractice tort reform. Current Research on Medical Malpractice Liability: Medical Malpractice Reform and Physicians in High-Risk Specialties, 36 J. Legal Stud. 121 (2007). The article supports the plaintiff’s view of medical malpractice tort reform… with a…