Maryland Injury Law Center

April 16, 2019

Michigan Loss of Chance Ruling and Maryland Law (with July 2022 update)

The Michigan Supreme Court came out a few weeks ago with a very interesting opinion in favor of the Plaintiff in a malpractice claim that most likely would fail in Maryland.

The doctor’s malpractice attorneys argued that the allegation that the doctor’s negligence reduced the risk of stroke from 10 to 20 percent to less than 5 to 10 percent was not enough to get the claim to a jury because the loss did not meet the burden of proof on proximate causation. The doctor argued that Michigan law is whether the opportunity to achieve a better result was greater than 50 percent. Under this law, if the plaintiff could not prove that receiving the alleged appropriate treatment would have decreased his risk of injury by 50%, the plaintiff’s claim would fail.

Thankfully, a divided Michigan high court found that this is not the law and that malpractice cases such as this should be decided under a simple principle: the plaintiff is required to prove that the doctor’s negligence more probably than not caused the plaintiff’s injury.

Regrettably, Maryland goes in a different direction on these types of cases as I have previously discussed. One thing Maryland has Michigan beat on is collegiality among the judges on the court. Battles in the Michigan Supreme Court are both political and personal in a way that would shock Maryland lawyers. Judges quoting political statements made by other judges to the press, the judge that wrote the majority opinion writing separately to refute one judge’s personal attack – if you have no interest in this issue it is worth reading the opinion just to get a taste of what this different world is like.

March 22, 2019

Anesthesiologist Malpractice Claims in Maryland

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Anesthesia malpractice claims in Maryland have declined. That is right. Something good is happening. Anesthesiologists have gotten better at delivering the appropriate amount of sedation. Why have they gotten better? I would say malpractice lawsuits. Anesthesiologists were forced to improve because their malpractice premiums were through the roof. Today, they do not even rank in the top 10 specialties. Still, there are too many mistakes that anesthesiologists make that cause patient injury and death.

Quick Overview

Anesthesia is a medication that is added to a patient’s body prior to a surgical procedure to keep the patient relaxed and comfortable during the process. There are generally three subsets of anesthesia: the first being general anesthesia, the second being local anesthesia, and the third being regional anesthesia. General Anesthesia is used to cause a patient to become unconscious during the procedure while local anesthesia is used to numb a small area of the body where the procedure is being performed via an injection of medication. Regional anesthesia is very similar to local anesthesia where an injection of medication is used to numb a part of the body, but regional anesthesia different from local anesthesia concerns a larger part of the body, such as from the waist down.

March 15, 2019

Hawaii Medical Malpractice Settlements and Verdicts

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

There are not many malpractice settlements and verdicts in Hawaii. Here are three that I found and the awards or settlements are significant:

2019, Hawaii: $18,760,000 Settlement. A woman suffered an end-stage renal disease after experiencing a sepsis-related infection while giving birth at Tripler Medical Center. She experienced repeated and increased hypotension and tachycardia episodes after being transferred to the postpartum unit. Her lab results showed that she developed sepsis and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. She eventually suffered permanent kidney damage. An infectious disease expert confirmed the group A streptococcus that resulted in toxic shock syndrome, sepsis, and bacteremia. Upon being discharged, she underwent hemodialysis three times a week. Within two years, she was hospitalized for gallstones and increased fluid in her abdomen. She and her husband sued Tripler for failing to timely diagnose or treat her kidney failure. They allege that she now needed a kidney transplant and other organ transplants throughout her life. The magistrate judge initially awarded $24,743,668. However, the federal government appealed the case. It eventually settled for $18,760,000.
2013, Hawaii: $4,250,000 Award. A 15-year-old became paralyzed from the neck down after receiving steroid treatment for lupus. She developed a facial rash and slurred speech while visiting Hawaii with her family. She saw a pediatric rheumatologist, who diagnosed her with lupus. An MRI revealed some white matter density in her brain. Upon hospital admission, the rheumatologist prescribed weekly methylprednisone and prednisone doses to be taken for four weeks. The teenager responded well to the medication; her speech resolved, and her blood tests showed no increases in lupus antibodies. The rheumatologist had her continue this regimen. Right before the fourth week, the teen complained of muscle weakness. Her mother had her stop taking the medications. She eventually showed myopathy signs and was subsequently admitted to the hospital. She eventually could not move her body from the neck down. The teen and her mother sued the treating medical center for prescribing a high steroid dose. She now needed lifetime medical care because of her injuries. The first trial, held in 2009, awarded $6,150,000. However, the Hawaiian Supreme Court ordered a new trial based on erroneous evidence. The second trial’s jury awarded $4,250,000, which the court reduced to $1,800,000.

March 11, 2019

Ravens’ Parade Trampling Case Reversed by Court of Special Appeals

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

I’m also fired up for a new year of appellate opinions. Something about having a new year on a case that just seems exciting to me. (In an unrelated note, I have four kids and few hobbies.) But there have been few tort related appellate opinions this year to get me fired up.

Anyway, the Maryland Court of Appeals recently decided a Sutton-Witherspoon v. S.A.F.E Management, a case that is factually interesting to almost all of us in Baltimore.

Facts of Case: An Out-of-Control Victory Parade

February 5, 2019

Shingles Lawsuit July 2022 Update: Federal Court Trials on Tap

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Our Zostavax Trials Set for 2020

Our lawyers are handling Zostavax and Shingrix shingles vaccine lawsuits. If you have a potential suit and have not yet hired a lawyer, call me.

Zostavax lawsuits are now moving forward quickly. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has selected the initial “bellwether” cases in the Zostavax MDL. Can COVID slow things down? Of course it can. But these cases seem to be moving forward.

January 28, 2019

Armacost v. Davis: A Practical Decision on Trial Management

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

In Armacost v. Davis, the first appellate tort opinion in Maryland in 2019, the Maryland Court of Appeals was asked to examine whether a trial court’s instructions to the jury were inappropriate and prejudicial in a medical malpractice case alleging negligence after a four-level cervical discectomy and fusion surgery performed by the defendant left the victim with claims of permanent injury. The Maryland high court ultimately held that:

1) The trial court did not mislead the jury as to the applicable law by first giving them general negligence instructions before instructing jurors on the standard of care applicable to the defendant brain surgeon’s actions.

2) The trial court did not abuse its discretion by telling jurors how much longer they would be required to deliberate after they had previously expressed concerns over the length of the trial.

November 1, 2018

Why Attorney Fee Splitting Serves Tort Victims

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Max Kennerly writes a blog post about referral or co-counsel fees in personal injury cases, talking about a case where the lawyers agreed to a fee split but after a nice verdict, they argued about what those words meant regarding carving up the fee.

There has been talk, as Max points out, about reforming the system to not allow lawyers to fee split personal injury cases. The talk comes from advocates of tort reform who have the goal of making life more difficult for plaintiffs to bring claims.

Such a rule would do just that. My firm spends a lot of time and effort providing information about personal injury cases on the Internet. We absolutely want to attract victims directly. No doubt. Getting 100% of the fee in a case is a lot more enticing than getting two-thirds of that fee, which is what we get when we accept a referral from another attorney. When we get a good settlement or a verdict in a case where the client came to us, either from the Internet or non-attorney referral, the words “And it is all ours” slip out when discussing the case.

This Blog Generates Attorney Referrals

Yet I put a lot of time and energy into this blog that is directed not to victims, but to other lawyers. Why? I’ll tell you. Every single year, we look at where our fees are coming from. Prior clients and victims who find us online are rising every year. Yet together, they do not generate nearly as much in attorneys’ fees as cases that were referred to us by another lawyer.

Keep in mind, I’m not talking about the volume of cases. I’m talking total fees. So, absolutely, we think the smartest approach is to direct our efforts primarily toward trying to attract other lawyers in and out of Maryland who have a personal injury case. The thinking is if they are regularly reading this blog for news and information, and using the resources on our website, they will think of us when they need help with complex malpractice, accident, or product liability claim. Continue reading

October 19, 2018

When Your Personal Injury Client Files for Bankruptcy

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Most personal injury lawyers have had more than a few encounters with consumer bankruptcy proceedings. Personal injury clients frequently file personal bankruptcies.

It is therefore important to know how personal injury claims, settlements, or awards are treated in bankruptcy. The question everyone wants to know is will the client get to keep some or all of their settlement or judgment?

The short answer is yes – as long the settlement proceeds are compensation for pain and suffering or future lost wages.

October 13, 2018

Atrium C-Qur Mesh Lawsuits

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

We have been getting a lot of calls from Atrium C-Qur hernia mesh victims. These poor people have a lot of questions and concerns and we try to lay some of those out for you here.

The C-Qur hernia mesh products are a line of polypropylene surgical implants manufactured by Atrium Medical Corp. The C-Qur hernia mesh products were one of several types of implant devices used in hernia repair surgery between 2006 and 2015. Hernia repair is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures in the U.S. each year.

What are Hernia Mesh & Patch Devices?

October 8, 2018

Knee Dislocations and Settlement Value

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Knee dislocations are relatively rare in automobile accidents. But we have seen several of them recently, so I’m writing today about these injuries and to give you some idea of the potential settlement value of these claims. If you are trying to find the general settlement value of knee injury cases, we provide statistics and verdicts for you elsewhere.

Knee Dislocations in Car Accidents

Knee dislocations are technically a dislocation of the patella. Our lawyers have seen a lot of these cases. Our knees are in a grove at the end of our thigh bones. This allows the kneecap to slide back and forth. When our clients have a knee dislocation, what we see is the kneecap is completely out of the knee’s grove. You can see it off to the side of the bone. If it is just partially out and perched on the edge, that is a subluxation or partially dislocated knee.