The Speaker of the House signed a bill yesterday that makes it more difficult for patients to bring medical malpractice actions. The Senate Speaker signed the legislation last week and therefore the bill is on its way to the Governor. The legislation requires that a patient give at least 60…
Indiana is not known as a particularly progressive state when it comes to tort law (or anything else for that matter). But not even Indiana could deny a plaintiff the use of the res ipsa doctrine when the plaintiff caught on fire during surgery. You read that right. The plaintiff…
To those of you who had a medical malpractice judgment or settlement in 2007: Please remember that the 2007 "Counsel for Claimants" reports must be completed and sent to the Tennessee Dept of Commerce and Insurance on or before April 1, 2008. Here is the website where you can download the…
It’s over. Rebecca Blair and I have been in trial in Columbia, Tennessee since February 25, 2008. Our client was a eleven year-old boy who lost his 34 year-old mother to hyperkalemia (an excessive level of potassium which causes the heart to stop) a little over three years ago. Ginger…
The Tennessean has been kind enough to print an op-ed piece I wrote and to editorialize against the health care industry’s attempt to avoid full responsibility for the harm it causes to its patients. Read the editorial here. Read my op-ed piece here. Read the opposing op-ed piece by Rep.…
This article in yesterday’s The Washington Post reported that 96% of physicians thought that they should report an impaired or incompetent colleague – but 45% said that they did not always do so. In addition, "46 percent said they had failed to report at least one serious medical error that…
The Georgia Supreme Court has refused to strike down that state’s statute of repose in medical malpractice cases when challenged on equal protection grounds. Georgia has a five-year statue of repose in medical malpractice cases (Tennessee has a three-year statute of repose). The case is Nichols v. Gross, S07A1027 (…
An article in the Archives of Internal Medicine looked at closed malpractice claims to see what caused the errors made by medical trainees. A summary of the findings: "Among 240 cases, errors in judgment (173 of 240 [72%]), teamwork breakdowns (167 of 240 [70%]), and lack of technical competence (139…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that an arbitration provision in a nursing home contract signed by a person who had a power of attorney to act on behalf of the resident is not void as against public policy. However, the court remanded the case to the trial court for…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal in two cases that address the issue of apparent agency. In both cases plainitffs seek to impose liability on a hospital for the acts of a doctor. The cases have been consolidated for appeal. One case is DeWald v. HCA Heatlh…