CEO Jeffrey Segal mentions a frivolous case in an op-ed in today’s WSJ:
In a recent case we dealt with, an expert witness detailed how a urologist had botched a vasectomy, even though routine postoperative sperm counts were, as expected, zero. Nonetheless, the patient’s wife became pregnant.A lawsuit gathered momentum based on an expert supporting the least likely hypothesis: surgical error. To almost no one’s surprise, a paternity test performed many months later solved this elementary mystery, and the case was dropped. But the urologist took little comfort in being exonerated. Too little. Too Late.
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{ 24 comments }
Yet another example of a hired gun “expert” whore selling his soul to the lawyers.
One may wonder whether the defendant and his wife and her paramour might be worthy targets of a defamation suit. The so-called “expert” witness should be brought up on misconduct charges before both his state board and his specialty board for giving wantonly defective testimony under fraudulent pretense of qualified expertise.
The plaintiff deserves the cuckolding for being stupid. The plaintiff’s wife deserves a jail cell for fraud and conspiracy, right next to her husband’s lawyer.
I’d like to see some support for the authors’ claim that 60,000 med mal cases are being tried at any moment. That’s highly unlikely that that many are in trial.
Must be one of those frivolous lawsuits that never happen.
You have got to be kidding me.
I’d like to see some support for the authors’ claim that 60,000 med mal cases are being tried at any moment. That’s highly unlikely that that many are in trial.
By ‘tried’ I believe he means filed and pending.
Here’s some math:
From New jerseys Division of Consumer Affairs, there are 10277 Physicians practicing Internal Medicine. In the last 5 years, there have been 494 malpractice payments (includes judgements and settlements), or on average 100/year (for this group). Assuming that half of these payments were settlements, and half went to trial, and physicians win 80% of cases that go to trial, there are 50 + (50/0.2) or 300 cases filed each year. For those that go to trial, dicovery is about 2 years, but with various motions, extensions, and so forth, the time to trial is longer, call it 3.5 years, especially if you factor in cases which settle at the end of discovery. So with 300 cases filed each year, lasting on average 3.5 years, there are at least 1000 pending cases against NJ internists alone.
I do not think 60,000 is a stretch, particlarly if you consider each defendant individually.
Just more evidence for the need to change to the legal model of “loser pays” as in the U.K.. When is Michael Moore going to expose the legal conspirators in the US and propose a legal system similar to that of other countries?
Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of our legal system knows we already have a form of loser pays in most states in the US, and that loser pays in the UK is nowhere near as prevalent as you think.
But hey, remove the need for us patients to have to worry about paying our medical bills and supporting our families when your careless errors render us uninsurable and unable to work, and I bet you’ll get some real traction on it.
“By ‘tried’ I believe he means filed and pending.”
That’s the only way he can mean it. He actually probably is including even claims against insurers.
But hey, remove the need for us patients to have to worry about paying our medical bills and supporting our families when your careless errors…
Where is the evidence that malpractice claims are the result of careless errors? Are juries directed to decide “Did a careless error occur?”
Was the lawsuit in the article a “careless error” on the part of the plaintiff and plaintiffs attorney?
That’s the only way he can mean it. He actually probably is including even claims against insurers.
Do insurers commit medical malpractice?
Claims against the physicians insurer not involving a lawsuit.
The article was a pay only, I couldn’t read all of it. Can you cut and paste?
This is truly disgusting.What could this woman have been thinking, to allow this to continue?
Remember –
“Lawyers only take on cases that have merit because the costs associated with them are so high. This is an effective filter against frivolous suits.” – CJD
Is this lawsuit suit apocryphal? Where is the cite?
“”Lawyers only take on cases that have merit because the costs associated with them are so high. This is an effective filter against frivolous suits.”
It’s fun to misquote people, isn’t it?
It’s fun to claim you were misquoted when everything you stand for is proven wrong, isn’t it?
That reminds me of when Charles Barkley claimed he was misquoted in his autobiography. Classic!
Yes, you are correct. It is a misquote. Here is the actual CJD quote:
But I think the fact that you run your own show means you can appreciate why it’s not in a plaintiff’s lawyer’s interest to take bad cases to trial. Not only does he lose his time, he loses all the costs he fronts. The average verdict is only $250,000. If it costs the defense $90K to take a case to trial (so they claim) it costs the plaintiff at least that much if not more.
The economics for trying to hit the jackpot in med mal just don’t work.
Link:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2005/07/study-suggests-malpractice-litigation.html
Again, where is the quote?
Nowhere was it claimed that lawyers only take on cases that have merit. There are bad lawyers just like there are bad doctors.
Read for comprehension, Matthew.
The economics for trying to hit the jackpot in med mal just don’t work.
I guess it didn’t for this shyster, the cuckold and his meretricious wife.
I eagerly await the state trial bar to mercilessly “police its own.”
Nowhere was it claimed that lawyers only take on cases that have merit.
Alright, you win.
Lawyers do take on cases that have no merit.
LOLOL
You’re right: I DO beat my wife!
Can anyone post a link to the full article? Or all you all WSJOnline subscribers?
Again, is this case apocryphal? It sounds made up.
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