University of Baltimore law professor Richard W. Bourne wrote an article published this year in the Arkansas Law Review articulating the theory that there should be an independent tort claim when a doctor destroys evidence or when a doctor fails to disclose to the patient that there has been a…
They wrote an opinion of interest to attorneys who receive referrals from other Maryland lawyers in malpractice cases. This case involves a Maryland lawyer who referred a cancer misdiagnosis case involving an allegedly misread mammogram to a lawyer that handles medical malpractice cases, agreeing to a fee split. Before referring…
Maryland’s nursing homes had an “off year” according to Jay Handcock’s blog for the Baltimore Sun. The Government Accountability Office reports that citations in Maryland for inflicting residents with “actual harm” or putting them in “immediate jeopardy” were given to 17% of Maryland’s 234 nursing homes last year. This is…
I recently read a closing argument in another lawyers’ medical malpractice case. In his final thoughts to the jury, he reminded the jurors of what I always remind jurors of when I’m delivering a closing: the memories of the victim will fade for you and for me, but this person…
Dr. Henry M. Learner, an instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard, writes an article in this month’s OBG Management called “Rebuff Those Malpractice Lawyers’ Traps and Tricks.” Dr. Learner is also the president of Shoulder Dystocia Litigation Consultants, a group that works with defense lawyers, medical malpractice insurance company…
In January, I wrote about Marcantonio v. Moen, an Anne Arundel County medical malpractice lawsuit that the trial court dismissed on summary judgment. The malpractice lawsuit alleges wrongful death as the result of an OB/GYN’s misinterpreting a sonogram and failing to order sufficient tests to follow up on the woman’s…
I read in the paper today that attorneys Dale Adkins, III and Emily C. Malarkey, both with Salisbury, Clements, Bekman, Marder & Adkins in Baltimore, filed a wrongful death medical malpractice case against an OB/GYN in Salisbury. We also have a case pending against the same doctor. [2013 Update: we…
Interesting data from Jury Verdict Research on the median and average values of wrongful death cases where the decedent is female. The overall average compensatory award for wrongful death of an adult female over the last eight years in the United States is $2,990,032 ($1,102,976 is the median). Age is…
On Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision that a father’s wrongful death medical malpractice claim on behalf of his 16-year-old son was time-barred. In Runstrom v. Allen, the plaintiff’ son sustained a broken femur in an ATV accident (I wonder if it was a Yahama Rhino…
There is an article in the New York Times today that concludes that it is best to settle most accident, malpractice, and breach of contract claims based on a recent study. The basis for the conclusion is a study suggesting that defendants made the wrong decision by proceeding to trial,…