LJN Newsletters

Part Two of a two-part article. In last month's issue, we discussed the defense problem of increasingly high med-mal verdicts. This month, we explore strategies that defendants anticipating their personal day in court should consider if they hope to buck the trend toward high jury verdicts in medical malpractice actions.

In medical malpractice cases, it is a matter of hornbook law that health care providers bear no liability for poor outcomes resulting from the exercise of professional judgment, as long as they adhere to the relevant standard of care. In an attempt to facilitate jurors' understanding of this concept, courts across the country have given "mistake" or "error-of-judgment" charges, which typically instruct the jury that physicians are entitled to exercise their professional judgment in choosing either of two reasonable options.

Last month, the state's Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that, if passed, will help indigent parents involved in child removal and placement proceedings.

Last month, the New York City Council passed a bill by a margin of 43 to 5 that would require contractors doing business with the city to offer same-sex partner benefits to their employees if their contracts with the city are valued at more than $100,000.

Judge Marilyn O'Connor of Family Court, Monroe County, issued a controversial order in March barring a frequently homeless couple from having any more children until they can show that they will be able to care for the four children they already have.

Every year or so, divorce lawyer Alton Abramowitz does something that would make many a lawyer lose sleep: He breaks up with a client. He would rather not show clients the door, but, he says, their unrealistic expectations sometimes leave him with no other choice.

Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.

In last month's newsletter, we discussed the issue of the unused professional license and its value, if any, when seeking equitable distribution at the time of divorce. The court in Pino v. Pino, 189 Misc.2d 331 (Sup. Ct. Nassau 2001), for one, has compared equitable distribution to imputed child support and maintenance and concluded that it possesses full authority to calculate the enhanced earning potential from the license and can add that monetary result to the monies to be equitably distributed. But this is a rather unexplored area of the law in New York -- an area ripe for litigation. Part Two of a two-part article.