Contracts in the Medical Context
November 27, 2007
In addition to claims for medical negligence, medical professionals and the facilities for which they work may be exposed to claims for breach of contract based on a theory that patients are third-party beneficiaries of contracts between medical facilities and their physicians. Such actions may lead to liability for physicians who have no direct relationship with the patient at issue, but careful drafting of agreements between facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals and their physicians may prevent patients and their lawyers from bringing successful third-party beneficiary breach of contract claims.
NJ and CT News
November 27, 2007
By reader request: A new column highlighting news in neighboring states.
Verdicts
October 31, 2007
Recent rulings in med mal cases.
WV Supreme Court Invokes Learned Intermediary Doctrine
October 31, 2007
Last year, pharmaceutical companies reportedly spent $4.5 billion on direct advertising to consumers, or about 400 times more than they spent 20 years ago. Drug company spending on advertising to consumers is increasing twice as fast as spending on promotions to physicians or on the research and development of new drugs. Given this exponential growth in direct-to-consumer advertising, it is hardly surprising that prescription drug makers' traditional immunity from consumer 'failure-to-warn' claims has increasingly come under assault.
ALI Changed Expert Testimony Standard, But Should States Follow It?
October 31, 2007
The authors are both members of the American Law Institutes (ALI), an institution that's been around since 1923. Membership is made up of judges, practicing attorneys and legal scholars from both the United States and the international legal community. The ALI employs a deliberative process to gain insights into its various members' understanding and opinions of the law, then it drafts and publishes Restatements of the Law, model codes, and legal studies to promote, as the ALI Web site home page states, 'the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.' In this article, they take issue with a recent ALI Tentative Draft on the expert testimony standard.
Electronic Fetal Monitoring on Trial
October 31, 2007
When an infant is born hypoxic, acidotic and neurologically depressed and goes on to develop permanent brain damage, questions are raised as to when the injury occurred, why it occurred and whether it could have been prevented through the exercise of reasonable care. The answers to those questions will determine whether there is a valid basis for pursuing a claim of medical malpractice.
