I read this weekend a crazy story about a Tennessee medical malpractice case. The plaintiff sued a Tennessee lawyer for legal malpractice for botching a case which he supposedly should have won. The legal negligence case settled for $750,000 which means, if logic and reason were at all involved in…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a new product for malpractice lawyers called MedMal Reports. This company creates a report of the expected medical malpractice payout for a case based on the National Practitioner’s Data Bank. I received an email from MedMal Reports Chief Economist, Dr. David M. Frankel,…
The West Virginia Supreme Court, applying West Virginia’s medical malpractice cap, affirmed the trial court’s decision to cut a $10 million medical malpractice verdict against a West Virginia hospital and one of its doctors down to $1 million. (This is the same thing that happened to us in Maryland 10…
Doctors may have a new opponent in their battle for lower medical malpractice premiums: the state of Maryland. As I wrote last month, Maryland has been paying subsidies to doctors to the tune of $80 million over the past three years as a part of the medical malpractice “reform” bill…
I have expressed my disdain for Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages many times on this blog. I read an interesting article in the University of Baltimore Law Forum on an issue to which I have never given much consideration: the impact of the cap on non-economic damages on women. In…
A post on the Illinois Trial Practice Blog discusses a product for malpractice attorneys called>MedMal Reports. This company generates a report based on the payout reported in the National Practitioner’s Data Bank. Reporting of settlements and verdicts is mandatory, so the data is not skewed the way published verdict reports…
The Illinois Supreme Court has approved a new plan that requires medical malpractice parties in two Illinois counties to seek mediation before suing in medical malpractice cases. The hope is that both sides can come to an agreement to resolve the case without the necessity of lengthy (and costly) discovery…
The Baltimore Sun reports that the extension of a state program that subsidizes doctors’ malpractice insurance premiums is no longer in need considering a $68.6 million surplus reported by the state’s leading malpractice insurer, Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland. Earlier this week, the new state Insurance Commissioner, Ralph…
The debate over medical malpractice tort reform in Maryland has always been sung to the same tune: “Do we need to limit runaway juries by impeding their ability to award damages they deem appropriate?” The question implies that justice is not being served because juries are (1) wrongly siding against…
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently upheld a $3.5 million malpractice verdict after a 12-day jury trial against a Bethesda, Maryland obstetrician/gynecologist and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC. After the verdict against both the doctor and the hospital, Sibley settled with the Plaintiff, but the doctor appealed.…