Lawyers continually push for physician misconduct to be made public. How about looking within their own house?
The Texas Legislature and Supreme Court, which share a role in establishing ethics rules for attorneys, have made it so that the public stays in the dark about thousands of lawyers accused of misconduct. Bar confidentiality rules ensure that many sanctions are private and that lawyers accused of felonies can continue practicing. The Bar doesn’t require attorneys to report their criminal record or malpractice suits.
(via GruntDoc and Overlawyered)
Related posts:
- A "dishonest trial lawyer op-ed"
- Will sorry really work?
- Doctor-lawyer wars are reaching a boiling point in Florida
- Cap trial lawyer pay
- A terrible way to die
- How a personal injury lawyer views the medical malpractice system
- John Edwards calls reducing medical malpractice lawsuits a "good idea"
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 15 comments }
In my state, the medical board’s website has the number of malpractice cases lost by the doc, number of sanctions brought against a doc, AND a PDF on each snaction clearly explaining what happened (an I think it should be this way). The state bar website has (almost) nothing on complaints against lawyers and nothing about legal malpractice cases. The emperor clearly wears no clothes.
In my state, all attorney sanctions are public record. Many newspapers publish when local attorneys are sanctioned.
Yeah, they’re public knowledge. If you are good with computers and search algorithms, you can figure out where the Bar hid the information.
Yeah, one needs an algorithm to look at the Table of Contents in the bar magazine, which is in just about every public library. Or use the phone to call the bar itself.
“Yeah, one needs an algorithm to look at the Table of Contents in the bar magazine, which is in just about every public library. Or use the phone to call the bar itself.”
Anon 10:48 here:
The point is esquire TRANSPARENCY (as you well know). Many people (probably most) are not savvy enough to rut around the library to find the information. In my state this information is easily available on the web for docs but not lawyers. This should be avavilable for each state. Am I the only one here who finds irony in your platitudes and excuses.
You really think that’s making the information easily accessible to the public?
Again, like the old saying about lawyer jokes. Lawyers don’t think they’re funny, and non-lawyers don’t think they’re jokes.
“You really think that’s making the information easily accessible to the public?”
Actually I do. Why don’t we compare what percentage of the public has internet access to what percentage has been to the library in the last 6 months. For “the public” the internet is the closest thing to a library they are actually going to use. Anymore platitudes and excuses?
ROFL!
And you wonder why the legal profession is held in such contempt.
You guys are SO right. People in this day and age have no access to televisions or the Internet.
Some states, like Texas, even require attorneys to have a brochure in their office explaining to clients how to make a grievance.
Each state is different. In some states you can find little about doctors, and much about attys. In others it’s the reverse. You guys should settle down.
If you want to find out if an attorney has been sanctioned, all you have to do is pick up the phone.
I’m also wondering if any of you physicians have actually been to a public library lately. They’re quite easy to navigate and have lots of people eager to help you. I know, given your lack of customer service knowledge, that such a concept is foreign, but it does still exist.
You’re right about Texas.
I felt a funny crinkling sound when I sat on the chair, and there it was, right under the seat cushion.
I know about customer service all right. I did have reason to file a complaint with the Bar once. They never responded, of course.
The Texas bar association behaves like an organized crime entity. Which for many of its members, it is.
Ed Sodaro MD
Amityville, NY
Anon 12:09 let me get this right. First you state “go to the public library” when it is pointed out the lack of internet access in Texas. Then when it is pointed out that most people don’t actually “set foot” in the library you tell them to rely on the TV or internet. Do you actually think before you type? Just how far do you have your head up your butt anyways? The more important question is not when “you physicians have actually been to a public library lately” rather how often does John Q Public go to the public library? If you had any clue about “customer service” yourself you would know that is the relevent question. The last issue about “picking up the telephone” is an outright LIE. I HAVE called my state’s bar about a specific lawyer and was specifically told they could give me no information besides what is on the (useless) website.
I’m sure physicians in NY are more than qualified to opine on the ills of the Texas Bar Association.
Your state Bar association gave you a non-helpful response?
Lucky you.
My state Bar didn’t even respond to my complaint.
>>I’m sure physicians in NY are more than qualified to opine on the ills of the Texas Bar Association.
And yet there are so many non-physicians here qualified to comment on physicians.
Comments on this entry are closed.