Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

Plaintiff filed an interesting appeal in an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit that ended in a defense verdict. Plaintiff argued that information regarding the defendant doctor and the defendant doctor's expert's service in Iraq was unduly prejudicial. Specifically, Plaintiff took exception to testimony regarding (1) [Defendant doctor's deployment to the Iraq war that was after the alleged malpractice occurred and; (2) reference to the doctor's military service improperly influenced the jury by invoking "strong views of patriotism for our troops."

The standard in Illinois, as in Maryland, is abuse of discretion. This is always going to be a dead bang loser. Sure, it helps defendants to wrap themselves around the flag a bit in defending their case. But background context is going to be admitted by most judges and, either way, their ruling is not going to be disturbed on appeal.

The Illinois intermediate court that heard this appeal agreed with me. You can read the opinion here.

A recent Jury Verdict Research study looking at jury verdicts found that the average wrongful death verdict for men is $4,132,576 and the median is $1,400,000. The average wrongful death verdict for woman is $3,158,223 and the median is $1,200,000.

It is tempting to look at these numbers and provide an easy answer to the discrepancy: men make more than women. But the average wrongful death verdict for a male minor is $4,300,663 (median is $2,000,000) and the average verdict for female minors is 3,438,080 ($1,500,000 median). So it seems pretty clear that, for whatever reason, jurors place a higher value on wrongful death cases involving men and boys than women and girls.

Medical malpractice verdicts made up 36% of the verdicts in this study. Of course, this does not count settlements in wrongful death cases nor does it count defense verdicts. Certainly, when you are factoring in the settlement value of a medical malpractice case, you also need to consider Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages because in most Maryland medical malpractice lawsuits, the cap on damages is not going to give the victim’s family much more than $1.5 million unless the economic damages (medical bills and/or past and future lost wages) are significant.

• Average Settlement/Verdict in Maryland Wrongful Death Cases
• Wrongful Death Claim Cap in Maryland
• Claims Available in Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Case in Maryland
• More on Wrongful Death Claims in Maryland
• Malpractice Lawsuits in Maryland (an overview)

To file a medical malpractice lawsuit in Maryland, a plaintiffs' malpractice lawyer must file a certificate of merit by a medical doctor that the negligent doctor breached the standard of care and caused injury to the injured plaintiff. This certificate of merit is a document authored by one or more experts - almost invariably medical doctors - explaining the good faith basis for filing the lawsuit.

A malpractice lawsuit in Maryland is not filed in Circuit Court but in Health Claims Arbitration. However, since 1995, any party may waive this requirement and proceed to circuit court, assuming the certificate of merit requirement has been met.

Can any doctor sign the certificate of merit? The requirements for eligibility vary from different types of malpractice lawsuits. The preliminary requirement for a medical doctor who executes a certificate of merit in Maryland is that: 1) they have clinical experience, i.e. a doctor who actually provides or provided care and treatment to patients, 2) they provided consultation relating to clinical practice, 3) they taught medicine in the subject matter or a related field of health care or in the field of health care in which the defendant provided care or treatment to the plaintiff, within 5 years of the date of the alleged act or omission giving rise to the cause of action. With limited exceptions, Maryland also requires the doctor be board-certified in the medicine that is the subject of the lawsuit.

The certificate of merit in Maryland medical malpractice cases must contain three elements:

1. Where the doctor is licensed to practice;
2. An opinion within a reasonable degree of medical probability that the treating doctor departed from the applicable standard of care in treating the plaintiff and that there was damage from the breach of the appropriate standard of care;
3. That the doctor does not devote annually more than twenty percent (20%) of his professional activities directly involved in testimony in personal injury claims.

• More on Maryland Certificate Requirements (links at the bottom have even more resources for meeting certificate requirement in Maryland)
• Sample Certificate of Merit
• Sample Deposition of Doctor in a Malpractice Case