In a key 2017 ruling in a Jacksonville case, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a hospital was required to provide records to a family in a malpractice case because of the constitutional amendment. The 5-2 ruling overturned a decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal, which had said the federal law shielded the records.

The history of the Constitutional amendment approved by voters goes back to 2004.

The 2004 constitutional amendment passed amid fierce political fights between plaintiffs’ attorneys, doctors and hospitals about the state’s medical-malpractice laws. The amendment, titled “Patients’ Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents,” was spearheaded by a political committee linked to plaintiffs’ attorneys …

Here are two posts explaining our appeal in Charles v. Baptist.

Charles v. Baptist (One)

Charles v. Baptist (Three)

Now, the industry and the First District are again attacking Florida’s constitution and the Charles precedent to make patients less safe. Here’s a link to the story out of Tally.

Florida’s First District Court of Appeals Urges SCOF To Rewrite The Constitutional Amendment Passed By Florida Voters Forcing Disclosure of Adverse Incident Reports

The post My Dad and I Didn’t Battle The Charles Case With So Many Other Fine Lawyers, Just To See Florida’s Constitution Undone. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Yahoo News provides an important reminder.

American Founders Knew: Right to Counsel Is Fundamental

The right to counsel is a core American principle pre-dating the establishment of American jurisprudence. Our founding fathers experienced the tyranny of a king whose decisions couldn’t be questioned and a justice system that employed the death penalty to eliminate his political opponents. To avoid such abuses of power, they established the right to a defense lawyer in the 1660s as one of the first checks on governmental power. This long standing right is essential to making sure everyone gets a fair trial.

The post Our Constitutional Right to Counsel Protects Individual Rights appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

This refers to the common practice of monarchs, who, before traveling into a new place, would send a party ahead of them to make sure that the road—the way—was easily passable. This crew would open up difficult passages, level out the road, make sure that it was as straight as possible, and remove any impediments to smooth travel.

Being a trial lawyer means hard work preparing difficult roads to make them passable. Many days, I use the feeling of old folk and country music that pulls on these threads to make sense of things. In America, many highways’ designed paths challenge already disadvantaged communities. When I was young, I lived east of Interstate 95’s designated route that cut in half Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. I never knew the history behind decisions like that until later. But as a boy, I remember exploring the giant sand mountains used to erect the busy road down Florida’s Gold Coast. A decade later, 95 was my work commute – more of a twenty-four-hour death rally than a road. There are construction delays and distractions on the Low Highway. The route is often dark and dangerous.

On the low highway
Windows down
Listening
Wheels turning round
On the asphalt saying
Every sound
Is a prophecy
Heard an old man grumble and a young girl cry
Brick wall crumble and the white dove fly
And a cry for justice and a call for peace
Force of reason in the roar of the beast
And every mile is a prayer I prayed
As I roll down
The low highway

Steve Earle, The Low Highway

The post The Low Highway appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

The false premise that secrecy encourages patient safety measures at any level of hospital administration is a myth that should not be allowed to persist. Medical error continues to contribute to an unacceptable level of mortality in health care and there isn’t anything happening in these secret proceedings to curtail or limit the deaths and injuries. More transparency can only help.

From my 2021 post, Peer Review Privilege is Built upon a Bogus Myth

Here’s a link to the news:

Medical error: An epidemic compounded by gag laws

And here’s a link to some of my older posts on peer review.

Peer Review (my challenges to it in court)

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

The post Peer Review (still) doesn’t work appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Now that compensatory damages have been awarded, the Alex Jones damage trial in Texas moves to its punitive phase. Here’s the link.

Jury finds Alex Jones caused $4 million in damages to two Sandy Hook parents

The post Prospective Clients Should Ask (But Generally Don’t) What Experience Their Trial Lawyers Have Proving Punitive Damages appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

The system for getting donated kidneys, livers and hearts to desperately ill patients relies on out-of-date technology thathas crashed for hours at a time and has never been audited by federal officials for security weaknesses or other serious flaws, according to a confidential government review obtained by The Washington Post.

If you ever wondered, yeah, that list is subject to the same problems inherent in all things subjected to human nature. Here is the link.

Thousands of lives depend on a transplant network in need of ‘vast restructuring’

The post Transplant Lists (are broken) appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

By abolishing longstanding legal protections, the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade serves American families poorly, putting their health, safety, finances, and futures at risk. In view of these predictable consequences, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine strongly condemn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

The post The New England Journal of Medicine: We “Strongly Condemn” Dobbs (for reasons of health care) appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Report: Whistleblower accuses CVS of “calculated and widespread” drug pricing scheme targeting elderly patients

The post “CVS Health intentionally prevented certain Medicare beneficiaries from accessing less expensive, generic prescriptions…” appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

This study in the stroke context suggests we have a lot of work to do in making rehab more effective. The analysis would seem to apply in any setting, from car accident victims to brain-damaged babies.

Patients should have the opportunity to demonstrate rehabilitation potential by participation in therapy. As therapy resources are limited and responses to therapy may be context-dependent, early decisions about a lack of potential should not limit longer-term opportunities for rehabilitation.

Here is the link.

What is rehabilitation potential? Development of a theoretical model through the accounts of healthcare professionals working in stroke rehabilitation services

The post Why is rehab important? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Just before trial, lawyers for the family said that the county had acted improperly by not turning over key evidence, including a training video on how to apply restraints that all deputies have to see. They also said results of tests deputies must take after viewing the video to determine how well they understood it were not provided.

Too often, lawyers accept discovery answers from the other side assuming that they are accurate and complete. That may have been an acceptable practice in the old days but not anymore. In order to win one case, even institutional defendants like police forces, hospitals, and multi-national companies demonstrate a willingness to either defraud or turn a blind eye to false and misleading discovery answers. Used to be, their lawyers could be trusted to make sure that the answers would be forthright (in order to avoid embarrassment in front of the judge). That calculation is no longer possible as law firms seem increasingly willing to put aside ethics to win.

As a result, your lawyer needs to be prepared to litigate each and every important discovery answer from the other side. When that happens, and the judge becomes concerned, it can affect the case in important ways that appeal very favorably to the jury. As explained in the story on this San Diego case,

The disclosures led U.S. District Court Marilyn Huff to conclude the county had violated its legal obligation — known as discovery — to turn over such materials. Throughout the trial she advised the jurors of these violations, and she said because of them jurors could distrust the county’s version of events on how deputies were trained and on Phounsy’s drug use. Those were two critical elements in the lawsuit.

In motions for a new trial, lawyers for the county said those instructions prejudiced their case. They argued that when Huff told jurors four times about the violations it was excessive and tilted the case against the county.

I posted about some of my experiences litigating discovery disputes when the defense concealed evidence in this post from March of this year.

Hospital Medication Errors Can Be Fatal (And Concealed)

The story on the $85 million jury verdict against San Diego County is here.

The post The Importance Of Fully Litigating Discovery Responses appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.