When someone files a medical malpractice claim, expert witnesses can be the difference between winning and losing the case because of the expertise that they contribute to the lawsuit. But, that’s only if the expert witness makes it to the stand. In some states, legislation is making it increasingly difficult for expert witnesses to qualify […]

A recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine contains an interesting letter detailing new findings of a study on physicians’ medical malpractice costs. The ultimate conclusion of the writers is that because doctors incur high legal costs in the defense of medical malpractice claims as well as steep medical malpractice insurance coverage premiums, […]

In July 2009, a member of the U.S. military underwent surgery to have his gallbladder removed. But when military doctors began performing the routine laparoscopic procedure, a serious surgical errorwas made that eventually caused the man to lose both of his legs. When doctors started performing the operation, the one surgeon mistakenly punctured the patient’s […]

If you have been reading our Chicago medical malpractice law blog for some time now, you may have come to the conclusion that medical malpractice is far more common than what you might have expected. In addition, the consequences of mistakes doctors, hospitals and other professionals in the field are susceptible to making when they […]

It appears nearly all members of the United States Legislature and the president agree that the nation’s health care system needs to undergo reform, but there is disagreement as to how to do so. As part of the reforms, and to help gain support for the bill, the President promised that he would help tackle […]

A national survey published in the September issue of Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that 42 percent of primary care physicians feel pressured to provide excessive testing and referral care. The reasons? According to Medpagetoday.com: 76 percent are concerned about malpractice lawsuits 52 percent cite growing reliance on clinical performance measures 40 percent have insufficient […]

We trust doctors with the most intimate details of our lives, trusting that they will use this information to help us and to cure what ails us. But how much do we know about the doctors that we trust with our most personal information? Are they trustworthy? Have they ever assaulted a patient? Or been […]

The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case challenging a decades-old legal doctrine that prevents service members from seeking medical malpractice damages against military hospitals. The case involves the wrongful death of an Air Force staff sergeant who died due to a nurse’s error during an appendectomy in 2003. In a 1950 case, […]

Medical errors happen every day. When most people hear about mistakes being made in hospitals that lead to severe brain damage or permanent injury, they think that it is the exception to the rule and certainly could never happen to their family. Unfortunately, for one family a simple medication error led to a permanent injury […]

In an increasingly mobile society, getting and transferring medical records has become a commonplace need. Public Citizen Health Research Group, www.citizen.org/hrg, correctly points out these facts about medical records: You are entitled to your own medical records, though you usually have to put the request in writing and probably pay copy charges (Be aware, that […]

In the news on reform of the civil justice system, consumers–and their lawyers–are always depicted as the enemy, creators of all manner of ill: expensive products and loss of doctors chief amongst them. What is often not mentioned, is the good that comes from accountability. Ten years ago some smart lawyers and some brave clients […]

Being injured by medical malpractice is bad when the doctor is an established, well-respected licensed doctor; but it’s tragedy when he’s none of those things. In July of 2006, Jose Veizaga-Mendez, M.D., a general surgeon, voluntarily gave up his license to practice medicine in the State of Massachusetts. According to Massachusetts, Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez gave […]

According to two studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, doctors’ hesitation to self-report their errors is not related to fear of law suits. The studies compared the rate of disclosure between Canadian doctors (who get serious protections from law suits) with the disclosure rates of doctors in the United States. The comparison showed […]

Judge Robert Bork, one of the fathers of the modern judicial conservative movement whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, is seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, after he slipped and fell at the Yale Club of New York City. Judge Bork was scheduled to give a speech at […]

The state’s biggest malpractice insurer has posted its biggest profit since the 1980s, increasing pressure on the company to cut rates that have surged in the past five year. http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=27575&post_date=2007-4-14