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The courts of New York dealt another blow to the cause of same-sex partners' family rights in October when the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed the Nassau County Supreme Court's denial of a motion to dismiss a wrongful death suit brought against a hospital by the surviving member of a couple legally joined in a Vermont civil union ceremony. The case, <i>Langan v. St. Vincent's Hosp. of New York</i>, 2005 NY Slip Op 7495; 2005 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10922 (2d Dept. 10/11/05), undid a holding that had been touted as a significant victory for gay rights in New York.
Features
Law firms often mislead themselves when they draw conclusions about profitability based on individual metrics without adequately considering how the metrics interrelate. In particular, isolated improvement of one or more measures may impair rather than improve the net contribution of a matter and therefore partner and firm profitability.
Partners in law firms of all sizes and specialties now realise it is one thing to attract high quality associates, but an even more difficult challenge to retain them. Competition for top quality associates continues to intensify, so effective associate retention is more important than ever.
Features
In this compelling snapshot of a growing trend, Eriq Gardner describes the newly expensive vetting procedures now faced by outside firms choosing to pursue business with a highly demanding large client. Gardner also touches on law business practices (<i>eg</i>, long-term fixed-fee contracting for an entire class of a client firms' litigation needs) that may bode ill for the quality of justice produced by the overall legal system
Liability claims against health care facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, often include claims of negligent hiring, supervision and/or credentialing in addition to the "traditional" theories of medical malpractice litigation. For many years, state courts debated whether a hospital's alleged acts in credentialing physicians fell within the scope of the "treatment and care" of patients. While the majority of jurisdictions now appear to recognize private causes of action against a health care facility based upon alleged improper hiring, retention or credentialing of professional staff, there is no uniformly accepted standard of care nationwide. Accordingly, specialists and the occasional practitioner in this litigation field are equally well advised to monitor the developing common law of their jurisdiction in the litigation of cases presenting such claims.
Most medical malpractice attorneys deal primarily with individual clients and local medical providers and institutions. Sometimes, however, a case has broader reach, crossing state lines and encompassing claims by several plaintiffs. If the case is a class action lawsuit, a whole different set of rules and procedures come into play.
Features
Recent news of importance to you and your practice.
State medical licensing boards and hospitals rely on many information sources when making licensing and credentialing decisions. One major source of information is the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a reporting system managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Last month, the reliability of the information contained in the NPDB was called into question after reporting failures within the federal government itself were exposed by a report issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG found that three Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies had failed to report as many as 474 medical malpractice cases that should have been reported to the NPDB over the course of several years.
The nation's second trial over health effects of the drug Vioxx got swamped in New Jersey last month, as a jury categorically rejected claims that failure to warn about the painkiller's risks caused a user's heart attack. The jury found, 8-1, that Merck & Co. properly alerted prescribing physicians to a link between Vioxx and an increased risk of cardiovascular events, and found unanimously that there were no consumer-fraud violations in the way Merck marketed Vioxx to physicians. As a result, the jury never reached the question of proximate causation of postal worker Frederick "Mike" Humeston's heart attack.