Tennessee medical malpractice (now called "health care liability") cases remained essentially flat for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, according to data recently released by the Administrative Office of the Courts. For the twelve month period ending June 30, 2013, there were a total of 385 health care liability…
The fights over the Tennessee health care liability pre-suit notice statute, T.C.A. Sec. 29-26-121, have steadily increased and now loom over virtually every Tennessee health care liability lawsuit. In short, motions to dismiss cases are being filed because of the alleged failure of the plaintiff’s lawyer to perfectly comply the statute. In many…
No, you did not read the headline wrong. The company that insures doctors for medical malpractice claims in Georgia is opposing a tort reform measure being pushed by a group of healthcare administrators. What is going on? A group of healthcare administrators in Georgia has formed an organization called "Patients…
The National Practitioner Data Bank collects data about medical malpractice settlements of $10,000 and more. Here is some recent information about Tennessee physician judgments and settlements as reported to the Data Bank: There were 155 reported payments in 2011, down from 192 10 years earlier in 2001. 31 of those…
Tennessee law has a one year statute of limitation in a medical malpractice (now called a health care liability) case. Formal legal notice must be given to health care providers who are going to be sued in the case and this notice must be given before the expiration of the…
The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has released its annual statistical report on filings, verdicts and settlements in medical malpractice (now known as health care liability) cases. The report bears the date "2012" even though the data is from 2011. The report is helpful to lawyers who represent patients…
It comes as no surprise to those of us who are medical malpractice attorneys in Tennessee or elsewhere around the Nation, but this article, "Surgeons Make Thousands of Errors," (subscription required) does a great job of identifying problems that arise in the operating room. The article reports that surgeons make…
The Nebraska Supreme Court has held that the doctor for a kidney donee does not owe a duty to the kidney donor. Thus, when the donee’s doctor allegedly committed malpractice when treating the donee, rendering the donor’s kidney useless, the donor cannot sue the donor’s doctor. In Olson v. Wren…
It happens almost every day. I receive a call from a person claiming that they have been injured by the act or omission of some health care professional and I have to tell them I can’t help them because the damages suffered to not justify the time and expense of…
Almost four years ago Tennessee adopted a requirement lawyers filing medical malpractice (now called health care liability) lawsuits must file a "certificate of good faith." Under the current version of the statute the certificate must be filed with the complaint. The Tennessee pre-suit notice statute can be found at T.C.A.…