How to Choose An EDD Trainer
Even the most seasoned litigator may be puzzled by such arcane terminology as deduplication, metatags, blowbacks and concept querying. To make sense of the electronic-data discovery (EDD) process in general, and to further ensure that the litigator is adept in using the selected litigation review and production tools, selecting a trainer with the appropriate skills and pedagogical technique, combined with "real world" experience in setting up review workflows and meeting production deadlines, is nothing short of critical.
Med Mal News
National news items of interest to you and your practice.
Mother's Death Is Case Study for Tort Reform
Tort reform is a hot topic all over the country, with advocates on both sides of the issue citing to particular cases and their outcomes as evidence for why damages should or should not be limited. Reforms other than damage caps are also being made or proposed, such as limitations on who may testify as a witness, on which cases can actually go to trial and on whether arbitration must first be attempted before trail can commence, among others.
Fetal Neurological Damage
Recent research suggests that attorneys evaluating claims involving newborn neurologic damage and cerebral palsy should also be looking at a new potential cause of such conditions. Some research suggests that physiological problems in certain mothers - and perhaps fetuses themselves -- actually contribute to neonatal encephalopathy or cerebral palsy that previously would have been assumed to be the result of intrapartum asphyxia, infections, metabolic defects, developmental malformations, or some other cause.
Bush Plan for Electronic Record System Gains Momentum
In April 2004, President Bush called for development of a nationwide electronic health records system that would include most Americans' health data within 10 years. He took some steps then to get the ball rolling, but funding for the program was cut in November as part of a plan to balance the federal budget. However, in the first months of 2005, Bush renewed his push for reforms, which he asserts will cut health care costs and reduce medical errors.
Recent Trends in Punitive Damages Awards
The Supreme Court's decision in <i>State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell</i>, 538 U.S. 408 (2003), addressing punitive damage awards was a culminating moment in a decade of high court jurisprudence reigning in multimillion dollar runaway awards. Following the decision, there was a flurry of activity by the Supreme Court itself, and in many lower courts, to remand, conform, and examine current cases in light of the Court's new guidance. With several exceptions where the compensatory damages are nominal or the conduct is particularly reprehensible, court after court is quoting the high court's language regarding ratios and remanding or reducing awards with double-digit ratios. The reasons vary, but include factors such as whether the plaintiff suffered physical or economic injury, the degree of the defendant's determined reprehensibility, wealth, and the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages. In general, the most successful strategies used by defendants to reduce punitive awards are: 1) under the reprehensibility guidepost, to exclude collateral evidence based on an insufficient nexus between the alleged bad conduct and the injury suffered by the plaintiff; and 2) to focus on the ratio between compensatory and punitive damages when it exceeds a single-digit ratio.
Americans Favor Malpractice Reform But Rank It Low on Priority List
The public favors reducing jury awards in malpractice lawsuits and allowing drugs to be imported from Canada, but ranks them relatively low on a list of 12 health care priorities for President Bush and Congress to address this year, according to a new post-election survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
HIPAA and the Criminal Investigation
As medical practitioners and the attorneys who defend (or sue) them have learned over the last few years, health care professionals are liable for wrongful disclosure of protected health care information under HIPAA and various state statutes. Lack of sophistication of the law in this area is no excuse for turning over medical records to unauthorized recipients, and appropriate statutory requirements must always be met. But it's not always easy to tell when those safeguards on patient privacy are paramount and when other considerations might trump them. A recent case offers an interesting permutation on the question by asking: When can law enforcement authorities access medical records without the patient's authorization? The wrong answer could leave the health care facility or provider that hands over patient records vulnerable to liability for unauthorized release.
