John Ritter died of an aortic aneurysm in 2003. His family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against various health care providers. It now appears that the case has been settled. I met John Ritter in New York 5 or 6 years ago. I went to a play and at the…
This op-ed piece from today’s New York Times is so good it needs to be repeated in full in this blog. The Doctor Will See You for Exactly Seven Minutes By PETER SALGO WHEN politicians speak of America’s health care needs, they often miss an important point: the doctor-patient relationship…
The locality rule in medical malpractice cases is absolutely ridiculous. It is designed to create an artifical barrier to recovery, to protect doctors and hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, from malpractice suits. It pretends that there is a difference in the standard of care given the size of the…
Back in 1975 the Tennessee Legislature determined that the only health care providers who could testify against a Tennessee health care provider in a malpractice case where experts from contigious states. This is an assine rule – but it is still the law. You can avoid the contigious state rule…
The Tennessee Peer Review Law of 1967 was “was passed with the stated intent of encouraging ‘committees made up of Tennessee’s licensed physicians to candidly, conscientiously, and objectively evaluate and review their peers’ professional conduct, competence, and ability to practice medicine.’ The statute further ‘recognizes that confidentiality is essential both…
The Ohio Supreme Court has released a decision in a wrongful birth case. Read about it our medical malpractice blog.
The Supreme Court of Mississippi has granted summary judgment in favor of a physician when the plaintiff failed to timely respond to discovery seeking information about plaintiff’s expert witnesses and did not timely file an expert affidavit opposing the summary judgment motion. Plaintiff maintained that she was entitled to more…
The Indiana Supreme Court denied a challenge to the constitutionality of a statute of limitations for minors. The statute required that a suit be filed within two years of the date of injury or by the injured minor’s eighth birthday if injured in the first six years of life. The…
Can a defendant doctor testify about what he was told by a consulting doctor? No, according to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The court held that the statement of the consultant (who received his information about the patient over the telephone from the defendant) was hearsay and that it did…
Here is the text of the Governor’s State of the State Address. You will note that the Governor did not call for restrictions on the right of patients to hold doctors and hospitals responsible for their negligence. This is a good sign. You can be assured that this was not…