Med Mal News
National news of importance to you and your practice.
A Sample of Effective <i>Voir Dire</i>
In Parts One and Two of this article, we discussed the strategies involved in deciding when to question the opposing party's expert; during preliminary <i>voir dire</i> or during cross examination. We noted that, in a jury trial, it is usually prudent to wait until cross-examination to attack the expert, so that the jury can see where the holes in the witness's qualifications and conclusions are. But sometimes, questioning during <i>voir dire</i> is preferable, especially when the result is likely to be the witness disqualification to testify as an expert.
CA Court Excludes Medical Expert Causation Testimony
Recently, the California Court of Appeal (Fourth Appellate District, Division One) issued a decision that confirms and clarifies the broad scope of trial court authority under California Evidence Code section 801 to exclude expert testimony that lacks adequate foundation. (<i>Jennings v. Palomar Pomerado Health Systems, Inc.</i> (2004) 114 Cal.App.4th 1108 [8 Cal. Rptr.3d 363].)
Ten Ways to Improve Medication Safety
The United States Pharmacopeia (USP), an organization that, among other things, operates MEDMARX, the national, Internet-accessible anonymous reporting database that hospitals and health care systems may voluntarily use to track and trend medication errors, last month published 10 recommendations for cutting down medication errors in hospitals and health care facilities.
Case Briefs
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
A Call for Continued State Law Tort Reform
The recent federal trial court decision in <i>Dusek v. Pfizer Inc.</i>, Civil Action No. H-02-3559 (S.D. Tex. 2/20/04) dismissing plaintiffs' products liability claims against Pfizer in connection with the prescription drug Zoloft' on the ground of conflict preemption has given the pharmaceutical industry some hope that compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations will afford protection from common law failure-to-warn claims. The court granted summary judgment on the ground that a cause of action based on the plaintiff's proposed additional warning to the product label that Zoloft can cause suicidal ideation would conflict with the FDA's decision not to add such a warning because no causal link had in fact been established and it would in effect be false and misleading in violation of federal law. This should not deter continued efforts to obtain tort reform at the state level, however, where the continued influx of pharmaceutical product liability claims continues to burden courts and the pharmaceutical industry.
Med-Mal Cases Down - Is 'Tort Reform' the Cause?
The 15 medical malpractice cases in the Top 100 jury verdicts of 2003 were a mixed bag of tragedies that may (or may not) have been affected by efforts to limit tort rights. The verdicts totaled $545.5 million. While that is a robust sum, it is nearly $178.6 million less than in the previous year's top verdicts, even though 2003 had two additional cases. Some attorneys and med-mal experts contend that trend-spotting is a pointless parlor game leading to faulty conclusions. Verdicts are fact-driven, they say. Others see shrinking verdicts and blame "tort reform," which, they say, includes damage caps in 27 states and indirectly affects juries everywhere.
Verdicts
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Med Mal News
National news of interest to you and your practice.
Expert Witness Liability: An Expanding Field
Expert witnesses have become a necessity in virtually all litigation, from medical malpractice to products liability to family law cases. Technical understanding of disputes is required for juror determination in this increasingly technical world. Damages need to be calculated using expert data; professional standards and their application to any medical malpractice action require expert opinion. But what happens when the side hiring the expert loses, or the independent evaluation doesn't come up with the hoped-for answer? Increasingly, what happens is the disappointed party sues the expert. In some cases, the experts have immunity to lawsuit, but in an increasing number of instances, they simply do not.
