Litigation

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Depositions in civil litigation serve multiple purposes. If one thousand litigators were polled, one would probably hear as many different opinions on the various purposes of depositions and the relative importance of those purposes. But one thing that all litigators should agree on is that real-time transcription and deposition transcript management applications can be significant tools for accomplishing whatever goals one has in a given deposition.

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Discussion and analysis of the latest rulings.

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Review of a key case.

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Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.

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Nearly one year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a pre-emption on filing failure-to-warn actions over federally approved drugs, rulings across the nation show a clear division over the issue.

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Last May's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ark. Dep't of Human Servs. v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006) ' which held that when a Medicaid benefits recipient settles with a tortfeasor, states seeking recoupment of funds for monies expended on their medical care may do so only from that part of a settlement that was designated as being for past medical expenses ' has so far led to very few reported decisions on the subject. However, two recent cases in New York have applied the teachings of the decision to find that some malpractice claimants who are also Medicaid benefits recipients and who settle with those who allegedly injured them must be allowed to keep for themselves more of the proceeds of their claims.

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Generally speaking, a physician is not liable for the negligent actions of hospital employees and staff who are not employed by the physician. There are, however, two key instances where a physician can be held liable for a non-employee's negligent actions: 1) when the physician discovers a non-employee's negligence during the course of ordinary care and fails to correct or otherwise prevent the ill effects of the negligent act; and 2) when the non-employee is under the physician's supervision and control such that a 'master and servant' relationship exists. Over the past several decades, the viability of this 'captain of the ship' doctrine has diminished, for several reasons.