Day On Torts : Tennessee Injury Lawyer & Attorney : John Day : Personal Injury, Accidents : Serving Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville

Will the President sacrifice the rights of patients injured by medical malpractice to get Republicans to sign-off on a health care bill?

Steven Olsen explains why the President  should not in this article titled "Why Shouldn't Obama Throw Injured Patients Under the Bus to Get Heath Reform?  Ask Steven Olsen."

Steven Olsen is a malpractice victim from California.  Here is a letter written by the jury foreman after he learned that the jury's damage award was cut because of California's cap on damages.

We viewed video of Steven, age 2, shortly before the accident. This beautiful child talked and shrieked with laughter as any other child at play. Later, Steven was brought to the court and we watched as he groped, stumbled and felt his way long the front of the jury box. There was no chatter or happy laughter. Steven is doomed to a life of darkness, loneliness and pain.

He is blind, brain damaged and physically retarded. He will never play sports, work, or enjoy normal relationships with his peers. His will be a lifetime of treatment, therapy, prosthesis fitting and supervision around the clock...

Our medical-care system has failed Steven Olsen, through inattention or pressure to avoid costly but necessary tests. Our legislative system has failed Steven, bowing to lobbyists of the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) and the insurance industry, by the Legislature enacting an ill-conceived and wrongful law. Our judicial system has failed Steven, by acceding to this tilting of the scales of justice by the Legislature for the benefit of two special-interest groups....

I think the people of California place a higher value on life than this.

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Post 15 addresses the changes to Tennessee law concerning the proper way to give notice to potential defendants in medical malpractice cases and the changes in the law concerning the certificate of good faith. 

I have addressed this legislation in several other posts  (here is a post with a complete summary) and need not repeat what I have published in the past.  For those of you who are involved in medical negligence litigation I suggest you read my  article on this legislation in the July 2009 edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.

The predecessor to this law came into effect last October and has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of medical malpractice case filings.  As I wrote in June, the number of filings for the first eight months after the original law law passed are down 60% over a year earlier.  

Clink on the link to read Public Acts 2009,  Public Chapter 425.  Click on the Legislation 2009 Category to see additional changes to Tennessee statutory law in 2009.

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A Tennessee lawyer who purports to have knowledge and experience in Tennessee medical malpractice law recently wrote a  blog post that advised the pubic about statutes of limitations in medical malpractice cases.  His post was wrong, and it was obvious to me that he was unaware of the legislation passed in June and that went into effect on July 1, 2009.

Now, you might say, "well John, don't be a jerk.  The law has only been in effect for a little over a month."  Sorry folks, in my opinion that doesn't cut it.  If you hold yourself out as having knowledge in a given area of law you have the responsibility to keep yourself reasonably current in that area.  The proposed changes to the medical malpractice law have been talked about by those actively involved in the field for months before the legislation was signed by the Governor.   The Tennessee Association for Justice list-serves have had numerous posts about the subject.  I wrote several blog posts on the issue (here, here, and here.).  I wrote a cover-story article for the July 2009 TBA Journal on the changes.  In short, there were plenty of opportunities to learn that the law was changing and that it had in fact changed. 

I don't expect every lawyer to keep up with all changes in the law - that is impossible.  I don't expect every personal injury and wrongful death lawyer to keep up with changes in medical malpractice law, for the simple reason that many of these lawyers do not do medical malpractice law.   I don't expect anyone to keep all the details of law in his or her head even in a relatively narrow field like medical malpractice.   And of course I am not saying that everyone who does tort work in Tennessee must read this blog. 

I am saying this:  if you hold yourself out as a medical malpractice lawyer, and you purport to advise the public on their legal rights in medical malpractice cases, please carve some time out of your marketing schedule to keep current with  the law.   

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