Medical malpractice reform in Georgia: Going too far, or working too well?
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“The medical association’s Cook said claims that some people can’t find attorneys may be overblown. He said the $350,000 cap only would apply to a small fraction of the cases filed each year, as many awards aren’t that lucrative.”
In other words, the cap only applies to those with the worst injuries, and really won’t do anything to stop frivolous lawsuits with small damages where someone is just looking for a few thousand in nuisance value.
What’s more, it won’t even save insurers that much since, as “He said the $350,000 cap only would apply to a small fraction of the cases filed each year.”
Wonder why they didn’t admit that earlier?
Oh poor lawyer babies – can’t get in excess of 350K for often bogus “pain and suffering” any more. WAAAAAAAA!!!
As always, I invite you to contact someone whose medical malpractice award has been affected by caps and tell them how “bogus” their pain and suffering is.
Although I know something that brave is not really your thing.
But hey, good distraction from the central point that the medical society lied to the public and its physicians about how caps would help stop frivolous lawsuits.
Boo freaking hoo.
Let them suffer with their cut of $350K
When will Massachusetts catch this disease?!!!
Flea
Exactly – $350K is more than enough for a lifetime of not being able to walk! Why should your inability to cross the street for the rest of your life be worth more than what a physician makes in 3 years? How greedy these patients are!
THIS is the definition of “greedy patient…..”
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/NEWS/602110338
7 years for raiding fund of infirm girl
Woman spent daughter’s trust money on drugs, cars
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/11/06
BY KAREN SUDOL
FREEHOLD BUREAU
FREEHOLD — Calling it an “extremely sad case,” a judge on Friday sentenced a Fair Haven woman to seven years in prison for misappropriating much of her disabled daughter’s $2.8 million trust to buy drugs and a Porsche, among other things.
“It does show you what happens when people get involved in drugs,” Superior Court Judge Bette E. Uhrmacher told Barbara Marschall.
Marschall in October admitted misappropriating funds from the $2.8 million special-needs trust established through a settlement of a medical malpractice lawsuit against Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch. She did so between 1996 and 2004.
The funds were intended to be used for services and other care for her daughter, Liza, now 20, to supplement care provided by Medicaid.
Among the unauthorized purchases by Barbara Marschall were 1995 Porsche 911 and 2003 Mercedes-Benz convertibles and a boat — all items that have been sold, with proceeds reverting to the trust. The Fair Haven house in which the woman and her daughter lived also has been sold.
Marschall used the funds to take vacations, buy heroin and cocaine and to pay her bail and legal fees to defend drug charges, authorities said.
On Friday, Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Thomas Campo said that while he was sure Marschall “has all the love in the world for her daughter,” he described her actions as “truly disturbing and unconscionable.”
By 2002, he said, Marschall spent about $614,000 she had received as an award from the medical malpractice settlement in 1995, then turned to the trust fund for Liza, who was born with neurological problems and cerebral palsy.
By December 2004, only about $100,000 of the trust fund remained.
Marschall’s lawyer, Charles Shaw, told the judge he believed the misappropriation “happened because of bad judgment she used during the time she was using drugs on and off.” Marschall is an admitted heroin and cocaine addict and had been arrested at least six times, mostly on drug-related charges.
Marschall said she was going to do everything she could to reunite with her daughter, who is temporarily living at the Gateway Care Center nursing home in Eatontown and attends a school designed for children with severe disabilities.
“She is what defines me,” 49-year-old Marschall told the judge. “Even now, I ache for her every single day.”
Barbara Marschall is expected to apply to the court in a few months to enter an in-patient drug treatment program.
Her sentence will run concurrent to the four-year prison term she is serving at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton for violating probation on drug charges.
In the meantime, Sara K. Olszak, the trust’s trustee and guardian of property, said the upscale Fair Haven house sold in July for $1.65 million; the cars and boat were also seized and sold, and the money returned. Through the trust, a more modest $510,000 home in Long Branch was purchased.
About $1.5 million in assets — including the Long Branch house — exists, Olszak said.
Barbara Marschall’s sister, Elizabeth, and brother, Richard, of Michigan have been named Liza’s guardians.
And a plan is under way for Elizabeth Marschall to move to Long Branch to assume care of her niece. She will become certified as a home health aide while awaiting Medicaid’s approval of a care plan.
Olszak said she hopes to have Liza living in the house with her aunt by the summer.
“Everything is sold except for personal property, which is in storage,” said Olszak, who said the property will be used in the Long Branch house.
So does all that mean the little girl didn’t deserve the money?
Liza deserved the money she is severely disabled but her mother had problems that took over her judgement. I know them and their is no doubt in my mind that her mother loves her.
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