Nursing Home Litigation and Residents' Rights Statutes
In the recent past, nursing home residents had difficulty in recovering money damages against those facilities. In 1989, Congress enacted its Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, which was a major attempt at reform in the federal regulation of nursing homes. This initiative was intended to dramatically improve the health and safety of nursing home residents through extensive regulations, including the "Residents Bill of Rights," new care standards and new enforcement mechanisms. See 42 U.S.C. '' 1395, 1396 (2000).
Drug & Device News
The latest pharmaceutical and medical device news of importance to you and your practice.
A Primer for Cross-Examining Mental Health Professionals
With well-established boards in place in each of the three major mental health professions, what stimulated the proliferation of credential-granting boards? And why would mental health practitioners seeking recognition of advanced education and training in a specialty area present their credentials to one of the newer, non-traditional boards? A dispassionate examination of our culture provides at least a partial answer. Many of those wishing to lose weight seek to do so without diet or exercise. Many of those wishing for wealth seek to obtain it by playing the lottery. Many of those who tan themselves because they like the "healthy" look are aware that there is nothing remotely healthy about their tans, but seek 'the look' nevertheless. It should not surprise us that many of those who wish to be perceived as proficient in a specialty would prefer the appearance of proficiency to the reality of proficiency because the look can be obtained much more easily.
Can You Get an Impartial Jury in the Age of Tort Reform?
In recent years, during <i>voir dire</i>, plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases have sought to ask jurors about their attitudes regarding "tort reform" and the so-called "medical malpractice crisis." These efforts have increased as those issues have moved to the political front burner, receiving considerable media coverage. Only a few courts have considered the validity of such questions, but of those that have, plaintiffs generally have been permitted to inquire as to a potential juror's views on those issues, though some courts have limited the line of questioning.
Limiting Med Mal Actions When a Foreign Body Is Left in the Patient
Many states make an exception to the time limitation in which a medical malpractice action may be brought if the cause of action is based on a foreign object left behind in the plaintiff's body. But what if the defendant was not the one who placed the foreign object in the patient? Will the foreign-object exception leave the doctor, nurse or hospital vulnerable to suit years after the patient was treated?
Verdicts
Recent rulings you need to know.
Clinical Trial Injuries
Clinical trial agreements can almost always be negotiated. Most part-time investigators, however, do not have the necessary legal expertise or time to interpret the agreement and conduct an effective negotiation. Proper legal representation at present requires an attorney who is expert in this very specialized field. Because sponsor negotiators often have huge backlogs of contracts in process, and over half of part-time investigators do not negotiate (or even read) the clinical trial agreement, an investigator who opens a negotiation may never emerge from the queue.
Practice Tip: How to Send Learned Treatises to the Jury Room
In product liability, toxic tort, and even medical malpractice litigation, the science in the relevant field is often a crucial battleground, and expert witnesses will do battle over treatises, journal articles, and the like. As every law student knows, scientific publications are inadmissible hearsay. Under the learned treatise rule, an expert witness may testify about scientific publications that have been qualified as learned treatises, but they do not come into evidence and so may not be published to the jury.
Online: Valuable Information for Lawyers As Well As Pharmacists
The Web site <i>www.pharmacist.com</i> is the single-source site for the continuous professional development needs of pharmacists, pharmacy students, and pharmacy technicians. The site is a joint project of the American Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
