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The Orthopedic Specialty Group, a 12-member group of physicians practicing in Connecticut, notified that state's trial lawyers in May that its members would no longer appear at depositions for the fees they'd charged in the past. This move, they said, was made in response to soaring malpractice insurance rates.
In the latest legal battle between doctors and lawyers over medical malpractice litigation, a California internist has sued three Hillsborough County, FL, doctors and the Florida Medical Association (FMA) for initiating an FMA investigation of the internist's expert testimony in a Tampa malpractice case.
In a disappointing decision for malpractice plaintiffs and their medical caregivers, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 21 that patients do not have a state law private right of action against their Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) when such entities make coverage decisions that impact the patient's health care. The decision means patients have little recourse against their HMOs, which under federal law are liable to plan beneficiaries only for the cost of services they wouldn't cover.
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Last month, we discussed some possible ways that hospitals, in order to maintain staffing needs, can help physicians obtain medical malpractice insurance coverage at reasonable rates. These possible solutions range from giving physicians outright payments to help cover their premiums to establishing a physician insurance program through an independent or hospital-owned insurer. It is important, however, that when hospitals and physicians consider any of these alternatives, they take into account the regulatory implications of any program they may devise.
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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is a nonprofit research and communications organization funded by auto insurers. Its purpose is to ascertain what works and doesn't work to prevent motor vehicle crashes and to reduce injuries in the crashes that occur. The Institute's Web site (<i>www.iihs.org</i>) is a resource for practitioners who need information on vehicle safety. IIHS research focuses on countermeasures aimed at all three factors in motor vehicle crashes (human, vehicular, and environmental) and on interventions that can occur before, during, and after crashes to reduce losses.
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Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.
Features
Today, television has become the dominant medium for the dissemination of information and entertainment, and the trial lawyer who ignores this basic reality of American life does so at significant peril to his or her case. The effective trial lawyer will continue to rely on the timeless tactics of credibility, emotional appeals, and logic. Nevertheless, in order to persuade a jury effectively, the trial lawyer must deliver the case themes and facts in a way that is consistent with how jurors process information in our high-technology age.
It has been estimated that at least 600,000 people have brought asbestos-related personal injury suits. Typically, each plaintiff sues dozens of defendants, so the total volume of litigation has reached nearly astronomical proportions. The total amount spent on asbestos litigation (awards and expenses) to date is staggering and has been estimated to be on the order of $54 billion. Many critics have said that this litigation has been abused, leading to the enrichment of plaintiff lawyers at the expense of those actually injured by asbestos exposure. According to one study, only about 43% of total spending has reached the claimants as their net recovery. <i>See</i> Stephen Carroll, <i>et al</i>., <i>Asbestos Litigation Costs and Compensation: An Interim Report,</i> RAND Institute for Civil Justice, Santa Monica, Calif. (Sept. 2002). The RAND report is available at <i>www.rand.org/publications/DB/DB397.</i>