"You were involved in a malpractice suit last year, weren’t you?"

Many times a potential client will come into my office and ask whether a doctor has been sued before. In New York, it’s easy to find out if a particular doctor has been sued. It’s not so easy to find out the outcome of each case.

These injured victims initially feel that “just because” a doctor has been sued in the past, automatically means that the doctor must be responsible for their current predicament. However, from a medical malpractice lawyer’s standpoint, that is not always true.

The proper explanation is best seen through this analogy: If you received six speeding tickets for speeding in the past, and were now pulled over by a police officer, does that automatically mean that you were speeding? Could the policeman give you a ticket based only on your past history of speeding tickets? The answer of course is “no.”

The same holds true for doctors who have been sued in the past. “Just because” they have been sued in the past is not the standard by which they are judged for this particular matter.

Importantly, contrary to the article’s comment that the doctor was concerned about his reputation, most experienced medical malpractice attorneys will go out of their way during jury selection to let jurors know that they do not seek to harm anyone’s reputation. In fact, most good attorneys will build up the doctor as been a good doctor. However, there is a significant distinction. The jurors will be told that at a particular time, on a particular day this particular doctor departed from good and accepted medical care, and that departure from care was a substantial factor in causing harm to my client.

So, although the doctor in the article got two new patients, while surprising, is not that unusual following a defense verdict.

Gerry Oginski
http://www.oginski-law.com
http://nymedicalmalpractice.blogspot.com