When is a conservative court not a conservative court? When it expands tort liability, apparently: Last month, in Wyeth v. Weeks, the Alabama Supreme Court adopted an aggressive new theory of tort liability that threatens to return Alabama to a litigation era so hostile to business and industry that the state was dubbed “Tort Hell.” In Weeks,
Medical liens are one of the biggest nightmares for personal injury attorneys. They add cost and complexity to a case as well as delay settlement payments. That’s an undisputed fact. Now, it’s alleged that a hospital is abusing the liens, too: Silver Cross Hospital for a decade has exploited accident settlements to get higher fees
What’s that? I think it’s the appearance of impropriety: "I understand (the plaintiff’s attorneys) would be stunned and upset," Munch said. "I have made disclosures in cases. I certainly should have disclosed it." Rebecca Aviel, a legal ethics professor at the University of Denver, said it’s clear Munch had a responsibility to inform attorneys in
The first thing any industry faced with negative scientific evidence does is form a trade group. And the first thing that trade group does is gin up “scientific” evidence that claims the industry is being falsely maligned. The asbestos industry did (and does) it, and of course so did the tobacco industry. Now, it’s the
“Bury the lede” or “bury the lead” – it means the same thing: To put the crucial information at the end of a story. And that’s just what Forbes did with a recent story on medical malpractice. The article checks all the right boxes that an article written by an M.D. about medical malpractice should:
Apparently, it’s not whether something walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s whether it bills insurance companies like a duck: There is tremendous oversight in the operating rooms in hospitals. But in Maryland, some other locations where surgery is done simply don’t. Maryland’s Health Secretary, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, acknowledges some clinics where
The New York Times reports on the interesting information being revealed in the first DePuy ASR hip trial: Separately, a DePuy engineer, Graham Isaac, testified on Thursday that before selling the A.S.R., the company only tested its performance on laboratory equipment at one angle of implantation. Depending on the surgical technique and a patient’s build,
Food Safety news reported today that nearly 5,000 pounds of a pork product called “Hog Head Cheese” was recalled in Louisiana and Southeast Texas": A recent outbreak of Salmonella Uganda in Louisiana has prompted a Texas company to recall a ready-to-eat (RTE) pork product. Houston’s Stallings Head Cheese Co. Inc. recalled 4,700 pounds of hog
In the medical profession, a “never event” is something that should never happen. Doctors have to make judgment calls every day, and sometimes those judgments will be wrong. Every wrong judgment is not medical malpractice. But a “never event” is not a bad judgment call. It’s blatant medical malpractice, no matter how you slice it.
Connie Spears had to have both of her legs amputated after doctors ignored her past history of blood clots and sent her home despite her symptoms of severe leg pain. Despite what to many medical professionals appears to be a clear cut case of medical malpractice, Connie Spears finds no justice in Texas. Why? Because