States

March 19, 2015

Illinois Malpractice Verdicts | Malpractice Settlement Value

I think sample settlements and verdicts are a useful tool in conjunction with other tools to help victims better understand at least the range of values in a medical malpractice case. Clearly, no two cases are the same and you cannot summarizes a case in a paragraph. Sometimes, I have tried or settled cases where there is no way I could summarize the case in a way that would explain why the plaintiff won or why the verdict was as high or low as it was. Said differently, reading these is important and education in understanding the value of medical malpractice claims in Illinois but you can only learn so much from these. If you have what appears to be an exactly identical case, the results could be very different.

All of these verdicts are from 2014 to 2020. Illinois is a big state. A lot of cases go to trial here.

January 23, 2015

Missouri Talking About Damage Caps Again | 2015 Update

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

After a divided Supreme Court of Missouri found the legislature’s $350,000 statutory cap unconstitutional 2 years ago, opponents of letting juries decide just how victims should be compensated said the sky was going to fall in Missouri. Last September, Missouri Supreme Court nixed a statutory limit on the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded against defendants. Tort reformers screamed doctors would flee, malpractice rates would skyrocket, and no one would want to do business in Missouri. This never happened. But now, some in the Missouri legislature want to pretend that never happened and want to take another shot at caps.

January 16, 2015

Emergency Room Malpractice in Georgia

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Many states are trying to carve out malpractice caps and different standards of care for emergency room doctors in medical malpractice cases. The thinking starts out okay. Emergency department doctors should be given the benefit of the doubt because things are happening so quickly. But ER doctors are always getting the benefit of the doubt from jurors. There is statistical evidence of this. More importantly, the standard of care already bakes in the fact that things are sometimes happening at the speed of light in the ER. That is why reasonableness is always based on all the facts and circumstances. Continue reading

January 6, 2015

Summary Judgment in a Hospital Malpractice Case in Rochester

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The first recorded opinion that I have seen in 2015 is a reminder to medical malpractice victims that there is rarely another option to hiring a lawyer in a medical malpractice case.

In Bagley v. Rochester General Hospital, a woman presented to the renal dialysis unit with complaints of abdominal pain, constipation, and complications from end-stage diabetic renal disease. This was, regrettably, not a healthy woman. The hospital did some tests and sent the woman to the emergency room believing that she had bacterial peritonitis as a result of being on dialysis. The woman’s condition went downhill from there and she died of cardiac arrest. Plaintiff contends that the real problem was a ruptured acute appendicitis, not peritonitis.

Let me start with a blunt statement: our law firm would never take this case. Let’s assume it is exactly as the victim’s family says. The hospital’s doctors screwed up and misdiagnosed the patient. Even if this is true — I would bet that, although it is just a hunch on these facts — I don’t think it is a viable medical malpractice action.

September 2, 2014

Medical Malpractice and Confirmation Bias

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

There are a lot of differences between good hospitals and bad hospitals. It is an all too common trope to claim that one thing encapsulates the differences between good and bad. It is always more complicated than that one little thing. That said, if you watch hospitals closely, it is amazing how often you see the best hospitals – the Mayo Clinic, Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic – owning up to their own mistakes and trying to figure out new ways to conquer them.

Tufts Medical Center also appears to be on that list although maybe more reluctantly and with a bit more dragging of them then we might want. Specifically, Tufts is attacking a problem that causes malpractice that last November, unleashed hospital and government inquiries that have led to widespread safety improvements in Tufts operating rooms this year and highlighted medical errors involving “cognitive bias” — an area of growing interest among researchers. Continue reading

July 3, 2014

Pennsylvania Malpractice Statistics | Value of Your Case

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Here are some interesting malpractice statistics in Pennsylvania for 2013:

Doctors won 77% of the medical malpractice cases that went to a jury trial. In fact, there is not a single jurisdiction in Pennsylvania where the plaintiff had a winning record in 2013.
1,546 health care negligence lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania in 2013. In 2012, the number was 1,510. Putting this in context, this is down 43% from 2000-02. Philadelphia, long considered to be the plaintiffs’ home field in Pennsylvania, filings are down 68% from 2000-02.

May 19, 2014

Declining Limits Liability Insurance Policies | Trial Tactics

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Some commercial insurance policies are written so that defense costs come out of coverage limits. It’s called declining limits (or wasting asset) because as the case is proceeding the coverage limits are declining. So the amount of liability coverage decreases, dollar for dollar, with every billable hour or cost in the case.

For defendants, this is a real issue. The policy limits that protect them against a judgment are being whittled away by the very people that stand between them and a verdict that starts digging in their pockets. In really large cases, this does not have a huge impact. But with smaller policies, a declining limits policy can be a real game changer.

My Declining Limits Case

My first case like this was a boiler accident where I sued the designer of the boiler. The company didn’t really have two nickels to rub together so while we might have hit them with a bad faith verdict if they offered the policy limits there was not much we could do. This policy had another goofy clause. They could get out of a $15,000 deductible if the case settled in mediation. Their lawyer asked me for mediation. I said no, just offer the policy. He told me of the language and we agreed to the mediation. They tried to get me to bend when I got to the mediation. I didn’t, they put up the money, and was that. But if I had known about the declining policy limits… I have no idea what I would have done… I guess push for settlement harder earlier. Ultimately, the difference would have been very little. It was pretty fun to see all the defense lawyer’s bills, which we ~~rarely~~ never have the opportunity to see.

It is hard, under these circumstances, to even make a demand beyond “give me all of your money.” There is not an accountant that gives an updated total on a daily basis. So it is impossible for plaintiffs to make a demand that they know to be within policy limits, which is critical for a bad faith claim after an excessive verdict.

Policies like this make me glad I’m not an insurance defense lawyer. The conflict issues this kind of policy creates are through the roof. The insurance company may want to go all out to protect against a policy hit. But maybe the insured just wants that policy offered early and wants the lawyer to do less to make sure there is enough to satisfy a judgment.

May 5, 2014

Pennsylvania Statute of Repose Opinion | Bulebosh v. Flannery

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Statutes of limitations can be very unfair. But as harsh as the SOL can be, a statute of repose can far more Draconian, closing the courthouse steps on cases where the victims did everything they could to bring a timely action.

What is a statute of repose? It is amazing how many tort lawyers do not know until they learn the hard way. A statute of repose provides a date certain by which a claim must be brought. In most states, there are no excuses. Unlike a statute of limitations, it often cannot be tolled by the date the injury should have been discovered.

I can’t deny there is a purpose to the statute of repose. The legislature wants to create some outer time limit where a claim is just too old to be pursued, no matter what. But some states have these short statutes of repose, seven years in Pennsylvania, and only five in Maryland for medical malpractice cases that are just unfair.

April 29, 2014

Former Gamecocks Coach | Wrongful Death Nursing Home Claim

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Many people try like crazy to avoid putting their loved ones in nursing homes. Usually, it is guilt or simply the pain of not having someone they love around.

It is also a fear that the nursing home might kill them. It is a real fear in almost every state in this county. Which, is exactly what happened in this case.

The case involves a former University of South Carolina football coach and athletic director. It is easy to figure out who he is, but I just don’t like naming names on this blog. His family sent him to a nursing home in Columbia called Rice Estate for what was intended to be a short stay. His wife wanted a break from the rigors of watching him because he had Alzheimer’s disease. Ten days later, he was dead.

His family wants to sue, putting several defendants on notice pursuant to South Carolina law of the intent to file a claim. The allegation is that he was essentially euthanized without anyone’s consent. That is what you call serious allegations of wrongful death.

April 22, 2014

$2 Million Malpractice Verdict in North Carolina Against Vascular Surgeon

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly has a good article on a $2 million verdict against a vascular surgeon that I think interests both medical malpractice attorneys and surgical malpractice victims.

Facts of the Case

Plaintiff went to Pitt County Memorial Hospital for vascular surgery. She had suffered for years with a vascular disease that left her with only half a kidney that was not functioning very well. She was suffering pain from an aortic aneurysm. This is a bulge in a section of the aorta which is our main artery that carries oxygen from the heart to the rest of our body. It is a dangerous condition. In a nutshell, this woman was frail and having real health issues.