A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances.

A Florida jury tacked on $50 million in punitive damages to a roughly $211 million award to the family of Maya Kowalski, the child at the center of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for mistreating Maya to the point that her mother took her own life. Read […]

I Was Afraid This Would Happen

An overlooked aspect of personal injury claims is the stress associated with the litigation, including opening up discovery to the other side and awkward encounters with treaters who are somewhere on the spectrum between skeptical or suspicious and hostile. Especially in serious cases, where the victim constantly in the care of medical professionals. As I […]

Defective Knee Replacements

I successfully litigated a product liability case involving a Depuy knee implant and the surgeon who placed it. This recent verdict involves a different type of defect and a slightly different model. But the lesson remains true as always: medical malpractice cases are difficult, especially when mixed with product liability issues. Choose your lawyer carefully. […]

Peer Review Privilege is Boken: we’re going to keep chipping away state by state

#QualityFraud A Pennsylvania appellate court’s recent ruling makes clear that a hospital’s internal documents are generally considered fair game for discovery in medical malpractice suits and the onus is on health care providers to prove otherwise, experts said. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1723936?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

Med Mal Presuit Rules Can Be A Trap

Many states, like Florida, have presuit rules for medical malpractice cases, passed at the urging of lobbies that represent insurance companies and hospital systems. These rules differ from state to state but generally make filing suit more difficult by setting up a series of procedures your lawyer has to follow. Unsurprisingly, almost every case involves […]

Discovery of Hospital Incident Reporting and Peer Review Privilege

I have had cases like the one below with both anonymous and signed reports removed from medical charts. In one case, a doctor met me in a restaurant across the street from the hospital and delivered to me his copy of a report that had been removed from the patient’s chart. I have also been […]

A Difficult Case

I have litigated similar issues regarding the duty a hospital owes to relatives of a patient, intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful death, and immunity. Here is a link to the reported appeals decision in my case. These are difficult cases, trying for all involved. Press attention can help but can also add to the […]

Fla. Jury Hits Doc With $20M Verdict Over Dilaudid Death

A recent and large Palm Beach County med mal verdict brings to mind the case of Bethany Morris in our office – a little girl scheduled for office surgery to remove a port wine stain from her face. A “dental block” was applied as an anesthetic but the surgeon had no oxygen to help deal […]

Physicians Assistants Are Not Doctors

You might assume that a physicians’ assistant is working under the close supervision of a physician. In my experience, you would be mistaken. The nurse practitioner will see you now. It’s not the phrase most people are accustomed to hearing, but it’s increasingly the case, with patients more likely than ever to see providers with […]

Fla. Supreme Court Allows Early Dismissal of Medical Malpractice Cases

After forty years, Florida courts and the legislature still can’t decide exactly what the rules for medical malpractice should be. Your lawyer needs to appreciate all the potential pitfalls. “We acknowledged that ‘the Medical Malpractice Act changed the law such that an interlocutory remedy for parties facing claims that fail to satisfy its pre-suit requirements […]