One of the largest malpractice verdicts in Maryland history was handed down yesterday by a Baltimore City jury that awarded $55 million in a cerebral palsy medical malpractice case. The actual award will be reduced by Maryland’s medical malpractice cap to less than $30 million. Hopkins is expected to appeal.…
Under Maryland law, when a defendant doctor is board-certified in a medical specialty, the plaintiff’s expert testifying to the breach of the standard of care must be board-certified in the same or a “related specialty.” Plaintiff’s medical error attorneys in Maryland have had a lot of sleepless nights over the…
Runaway juries are a big problem in medical malpractice cases. Juries see a sympathetic plaintiff and, unchecked by reason, they write oversized checks. Liberal judges aid and abet the crime. This belief has taken deep root in Maryland – and in most states – that has led to the enactment…
The Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a new trial this week in a medical malpractice case for an interesting reason: the defense expert testified at trial that malpractice lawsuits drive up health care costs by forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine. The big issue in the case was whether appropriate standard…
Last week, I wrote about a stunt that a defense lawyer pulled with a defense medical exam in a car accident case. This week’s sneaky defense lawyer trick involves a creative effort to depose plaintiffs’ medical expert twice in a wrongful death medical malpractice case. Here’s what happened. Shortly after…
This week, in University of Maryland v. Multi, Medical Systems, the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed the Court of Special Appeals on a topic that has gone relatively untouched until recently: “use plaintiffs” in wrongful death cases. This appeal involved a medical malpractice wrongful death and survival action claim brought…
LawyersUSA has an article out today on the struggles that personal injury attorneys have had in getting fair compensation for their clients in accident and malpractice cases. The article contains a few quotes from me. There are a couple of leitmotifs lawyers deal with when representing injured people who are…
The Baltimore Sun had an interesting front page article yesterday on Maryland hospitals referring patients with malpractice claims to specific medical malpractice lawyers. I think this is a terrible idea. First, everyone means well. The hospitals know they have made a mistake and want to (1) get the clients to…
The Maryland Court of Appeals issued an opinion Friday in Spangler v. McQuitty, ending this cerebral palsy medical malpractice case that began 17 years ago. I first wrote about this case two years ago when the Maryland Court of Appeals heard this tragic case involving a boy born with severe…
In a new opinion by the Maryland Court of Appeals, the court answers whether Maryland’s Health Claims Arbitration requirements should apply to cases filed in federal court where the malpractice occurred outside of Maryland. Certainly an important issue to address. Lewis v. Waletzky involves a claim that a psychiatrist in…