A likely winner, as the hospital admitted negligence. However, the suit was filed a day after the statue of limitations ran out.
Related posts:
- A physician is on the hook for a $9M malpractice case
- Lawyer brothers in an epic malpractice case
- Another first malpractice suit story
- Malpractice plaintiff wins case, wants more
- Hypnosis show volunteer sues over psychological damage
- The choice between malpractice and insurance fraud
- Screening a malpractice case
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I take extreme umbrage at the AP headline: Neither the statute of limitations nor the elements of the tort of medical malpractice (or any other tort, for that matter) are “technicalities.”
Every second-year law student knows that a tort “occurs” when the injury is first discovered (or could reasonably have been discovered). Every would-be lawyer studying for a state bar exam knows the SoL for particular torts in that particular state (e.g., I still remember after all this time that in New York State the SoL for medmal is 2.5 years and not 3 years as for other malpractice and negligence suits, thanks to a special exception bought by the medical lobby).
Meanwhile, this is now an open-and-shut case of lawyer malpractice. No reasonable attorney would have made this mistake.
How often is there lawyer malpractice cases? Seems to me it is rare enough that you hear about it when it happens. Talk about collusion.
Lawyer malpractice for missing the SOL? That’s a joke in this unfair playing field. I’m being sued for a patient I never even saw, and I can’t even get myself dropped from the case. The Plaintiff’s hold all the cards. That’s Lawyer malpractice. But as I’ve been told, in my state, you can’t counter-sue or fight back. It’s just like being a NAMBLA victim.
There might be some strategic advantage in delaying the filing of lawsuits until the SOL is almost gone. Then again, perhaps plaintif’s attorneys are still functioning much like they did in college, pulling all nighters to scrape together a paper to hand in at the last second. Why they don’t leave themselves a week’s buffer is beyond me. File any old piece of crap in time to get the SOL clock off your back and ammend later.
Anon 7:16, are you drunk when you post?
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