Day on Torts

July 17, 2009

Consent Provisions in Professional Liability Insurance Policies

Last Friday a Memphis jury awarded almost $24M to a woman and her husband in a civil suit arising out of what the jury found to be medical negligence arising from the failure to promptly diagnose breast cancer. The woman is in the last weeks of her shortened life.

It is my understanding that the defendant did not make a settlement offer and in fact that the doctor refused to authorize any offer. I do not know if this is correct. I do not know if the case could have been settled. I do know it is hard to make progress on settlement negotiations if one side or the other refuses to discuss settlement.

Many insurance companies that provide professional liability coverage to physicians give the physician the right to refuse to consent to any settlement. This is unlike traditional liability insurance coverage, where the insured may be given the opportunity to voice an opinion on settlement but rarely has any power to block a settlement within policy limits.

July 17, 2009

For Sale

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The American Conservative Union, the nation’s oldest conservative lobbying organization, has firmly held core beliefs. Those core beliefs are apparently for sale to the highest bidder, even if the highest bidder is on the opposite side of the issue than the other potential bidder.

Credibility free-fall.

July 16, 2009

SVMIC – 2008 Financial Results – Part 3

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

This is the third post about State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company’s 2008 financial results. Click on the links to see Part 1 and Part 2.

New malpractice claims asserted against SVMIC insureds dropped 2.5% in 2008. The company reports that 83% of all cases were resolved in favor of it’s policyholders on a company-wide basis.

(One of the things I frequently address at seminars for young lawyers is the evaluation of potential medical negligence cases. I tell them that the best way to make money on medical malpractice cases is to refuse to represent the next ten people who call asking the lawyer to represent them in a medical malpractice case. Obviously, that is ridiculous, but the fact remains that SVMIC "wins" almost 9 out of 10 cases. A fair number of those cases are filed by lawyers who do not have the experience to recognize a bad case from a good case..)

July 15, 2009

SVMIC – 2008 Financial Results – Part 2

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Our last post discussed State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company’s $251,321,000 policyholder surplus. This post will discuss other aspects of the company’s finances.

As of December 31, 2008, SVMIC had total assets of $1,324,500,000 assets. (That’s $1.3 Billion). The vast majority of those assets are in government (federal, state and local) and corporate bonds, although the company does have some stock holdings ($53M). The conservative allocation of monies among these investment vehicles resulted in only a very small loss in investments in 2008. The loss on the value of these investments sold was only $1.7M, although the the investments that continued to be held had a decline in value of about $23M.

The total revenues of the company in 2008 were down about $12,000,000 to $246,000,000. It is important to note that the number of policyholders decreased from 16,155 to 15,501, which certainly had an impact on revenue.

July 14, 2009

Use of the Exhibit Stamp in Adobe

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog has a great post called "Add Dynamic Exhibit Stamps in Acrobat using a free stamp set." The electronic exhibit stamp has both a static graphic element and a changing numeric or alphabetic element and permits you to electronically stamp documents with exhibit numbers or letters. The tool is very helpful when filing papers in federal court.

July 13, 2009

SVMIC – 2008 Financial Results – Part 1

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

SVMIC continues to enjoy wonderful profitability, even as the number of physicians it insures declines.

SVMIC – State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company – is a physician-owned insurance company that was created over 30 years ago. It has grown from a company with paid-in capital of $7,500,000 to a entity with a policyholder surplus (think: net worth) of $251,321,321.

Let me explain what that means. Policyholder surplus is determined by subtracting reserves for claims payments and claims expenses from assets. Each time a claim is made a reserve is set. The size of the reserve is based on the severity of the claim, the likelihood of payment and the anticipated defense costs. The amount reserved on a claim changes over time, but the idea is that the sum total of reserves should pay all existing claims and all future defense costs. There is also a category of reserves known as IBNR – Incurred But Not Reported. This is for claims that the company "knows" to be out there but have not yet been reported to the company.

July 13, 2009

David Mills Does It Again – A Reader Supplies the Caption

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

stickman-richie

David Mills, appellate lawyer and cartoonist from Ohio, supplied the cartoon. A reader supplied the caption. In fact, lots of readers suggested captions, and David choose this one.

I must admit that I was a fan of a caption suggested by Kpawss ("Surprisingly, a lineal descendant appeared during probate.") but I certainly cannot disagree with David’s choice written by J. Whitney.

Thanks, David, for sharing your work with us. See more of David’s work at Courtoons.

July 12, 2009

Thoughts About Efficiency in Law Practice

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

For lawyers, time is money. For lawyers who charge hourly rates, inefficiency may result in more fees on the front end but will result in a clients over time.

For contingent fee lawyers, efficient practice increases profitability. This blog post from Litigation Cost Control reminds us of the efficiencies that come from the use of forms and checklists.

The post is geared toward hourly rate lawyers working on complex litigation matters, but hose of us who work on a contingent fee can benefit from these words.

July 12, 2009

ER Docs in Arizona Get Special Treatment in Courtrooms

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Torts Prof lets us know that the elected representatives in Arizona believe that ER doctors should not be held responsible for their negligence unless the patient can prove his case by clear and convincing evidence.

July 11, 2009

Do You Want to Go Paperless in Your Office?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Or at least move in that direction? Here is a great post from a lawyer who has figured out how to do it.

An an excerpt:

In the three years that I’ve been practicing as a solo lawyer I have been completely paperless. Before that, when I worked in a large firm, I kept the files that I worked on by myself in a completely paperless form. So, when I hear people say that it’s impossible to be completely paperless I know that’s not true. In addition to my own personal experience, I know several lawyers who have completely paperless law practices.