Florida’s Wrongful Death Law Is Wrong

Florida bars any wrongful death claims for victims of medical malpractice where other families with different types of wrongful death claims are allowed to proceed. I have been fighting against this cruel law for most of my career. While the legislature dithers around with bills proposed to remedy this inequity (powerful insurance and health care […]

Stare It Cold

I am approaching the beginning of 2022 like the last two years were an illness because we spent them obsessing over one. To get what we want – a return to some kind of normal and with any luck full jury trial dockets functioning – we need to take our medicine, take doctors’ advice, finish […]

Wakey, Wakey: Morning Cuppa 2022

The Maxwell jury came back before the holiday, convicting in the sex trafficking case on all but one count – looks [ike multiple decades of prison time. The Holmes / Theranos jury is apparently deadlocked on at least some counts, according to notes to the Judge, As we like to say here, juries are not […]

Peer Review Privilege is Built upon a Bogus Myth (Convince Me I’m Wrong)

The news (Trial Court Order Forcing Disclosure of Quality Assurance Materials Appealed) about the hospital lobby in Illinois (Chicago is home to the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospitals that conducts “sentinel event reporting” on licensed hospitals nationally) filing a brief to block patient safety reports led me into my archives. I have written […]

Binding (it’s a noun and an adjective)

You packed your bags and all alone you wanna ride You don’t want nothing, don’t need no one by your side You’re walking tough, baby, but you’re walking blind To the ties that bind Glue and cloth, providing a strong cover that holds pages together. A chemical reaction, solidly joining like compounds. A fastener, combining […]

An Emergency Room Liability Primer

An emergency medicine physicians group has sued Envision Healthcare, the giant health care services company, alleging that it violated California laws barring corporations from practicing medicine when it took over staffing of the emergency department at Placentia-Linda Hospital in Placentia, California, in August. Doctors sue Envision Healthcare, say private equity-backed firm shouldn’t run ERs in California The […]

A New England Argument for Apologies (Do We Really Need a Law?)

The Case for “Apology Laws” in Healthcare One of the biggest arguments against an apology law is that when negligence occurs healthcare professionals should be held accountable. However, this is not hindered by an apology law. All an apology law provides is the ability for a physician to apologize for an outcome, no matter the […]

California has had enough of the caps that protect bad doctors.

Opinion: Raise Old Caps On Medical Malpractice “Tort Reform” swept across the country during the ’80s. Pushed by heavy lobbying and promises of lower premiums from the insurance industry, States made it more and more challenging to pursue remedies against health care providers and obtain total and fair compensation. Most of us in the business […]