The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided on a new malpractice case in Wantz v. Afzal. Facts Wantz is a Frederick County fatal medical malpractice case involving a staph infection following spinal fusion surgery after a slip and fall that allegedly caused the death of the plaintiff’s 77-year-old mother. At…
Good medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland read every high court opinion about medical malpractice. Yet I think everyone can skip the Maryland Court of Appeals opinion released today in Neustadter v. Holy Cross Hospital. Neustadter is a malpractice/wrongful death case involving the death of a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor. Another interesting…
In Muti v. University of Maryland Medical Systems, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals returned to a subject that, until recently, has gotten little attention by our appellate courts: “use plaintiffs” in wrongful death cases. This is a medical malpractice wrongful death and survival action claim brought by two men…
There is an interesting opinion last week in a medical malpractice case involving federal diversity in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Most tort lawyers are not litigating in federal court often unless they are doing mass torts. We have never had a malpractice case in federal court. But we have…
Henry Thoreau wrote: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” So it goes with efforts to decrease health care costs by attacking the frivolous malpractice lawsuit straw man. Attacking frivolous malpractice lawsuits is a brilliant way to frame the…
The Insurance Journal reports a rise in legal malpractice claims. Incredibly, there has been no hand wringing about increased malpractice rates for lawyers or fears that lawyers can no longer keep their practices open as their insurance rates rise. We have never had a legal malpractice claim yet our rates…
I’m squinting my eyes but I still cannot get the correlation between the national debt and limiting medical malpractice lawsuits. This Huffington Post commentary points out the insanity of including medical malpractice reform on our “to do” list to tackle the national debt. The “Bristol Palin as America’s Next Sweetheart”…
You are a lawyer looking for an expert in a medical malpractice case in Maryland. You find one you think is perfect. She has firm opinions, a great reputation, and will communicate well with the jury. You have just one problem. Although your expert is intimately familiar with the care/procedure…
Jury Verdict Research published a study this month that found that medical malpractice plaintiffs receive an average of $983,769 for being “incorrectly diagnosed with a serious illness resulting in fear or unnecessary treatment.” For once, the median is not far behind the average. The median misdiagnosis verdict was $843,362. To…
The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a medical malpractice lawsuit against a doctor for procedural reasons in a 4-3 opinion issued this morning. Filed in Anne Arundel County, this wrongful death malpractice claim alleged that a dermatologist failed to perform a timely biopsy of a mole that…