Tennessee permits a plaintiff to rely on the res ipsa loquitor doctrine in medical negligence cases when appropriate under the facts. For the most recent Tennessee case on the issue see Flowers v. H.C.A. Health Care Services of Tennessee, Inc., 2006 WL 627183 ((Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 14, 2006). But…
How does SVMIC evaluate claims? Here is what they tell their insureds.
The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled unconstitutional a state statute that imposed certain requirements on expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases. The statute required that experts be board certified in the same specialty as the defendant and mandated that the expert have practiced (or taught) that same specialty for…
Here is an interesting post from Torts Prof Blog: "After all the time and money spent, aren’t the results of medical malpractice litigation extremely accurate? Although perhaps better than earlier studies indicated, malpractice results are imprecise. The Harvard School of Public Health study, in assessing how often medical error occurred…
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued its first two tort law opinions of the year yesterday, both dealing with the same subject: the potential liability of a hospital for the acts of a non-employed,, hospital-based physician. The Court said that "to hold a hospital vicariously liable for the negligent or wrongful acts…
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.…