Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

Maryland Family Law Code §§14-101-14-309 provides statutory regulations for Adult Protective Service.

One interesting feature of the law is that it provides legal protection for those who in good faith initiate or participate in a nursing home investigation. It other words, you have immunity for reporting an elder abuse situation even if you end up being wrong.

Honestly, I think this just repeats Maryland law. The following concerns deserve attention: abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Although it has nothing to do with potential nursing home lawsuits, another huge concern that needs to be reported is self-abuse, the inability of a vulnerable adult to provide for his/her physical or mental health and well-being.

You can find more information about Adult Protective Services in Maryland from the Maryland Department of Human Resources

DEA agents tell a Maryland doctor he can no longer prescribe medication. As they are leaving he shouts:

Your mothers wanted you to become physicians and because you didn't, they are mad at you. So you are mad at physicians and are arresting all physicians in the area.

Later, things get weird and the doctor's wife puts him in a full Nelson.

... I was pretty excited to make that joke ("Later,") even though it is arguably lame. Then I was going to post to link suspending this doctor. It is definitely juicy. But, at some point, the Rubicon gets crossed as to what constitutes fair game. Hopefully, the guy gets the help he needs. If you are really that curious about it, that is what Google is for. This doctor is one of a number of doctors who were suspended in a single practice. I can't image what life was like for the patients (and the employees) in that office.

I'm reading a book called Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan. The premise of the book is that we, as a species, have shortcomings that make us prone to mistakes. It is a pretty decent book.

In a footnote on page 193, Hallinan makes reference to a study that was done that asked pilots the question: "Even when fatigued, I perform effectively during critical [times]." Only 26% of pilots agreed with that statement. Yet 70 percent of surgeons agreed with that statement.

My understanding of Maryland law is that doctors do not have to consent to settle before the insurance company can make a settlement offer, absent specific policy language giving them that right. (I say "my understanding" because I really don't know the source. It could be the "Law of Ron." But I think that is right.)

Either way, I think the point is largely moot in Maryland. Med Mutual, who insures most Maryland doctors, seems to require the doctor's assent to settling a malpractice case. It is not a bad policy - it is a doctors' owned insurance company. Most doctors pushing Med Mutual to stick its chest out likely have enough coverage. No one is usually so bold with their own assets on the line.

A lot of defendants' malpractice lawyers use this as a faux means of not pursuing settlement discussions before a pretrial. But I know we have tried at least one case because the doctor did not want to settle which we think was out of fear that Med Mutual would drop him.

Anyway, there is a new opinion in Rhode Island that sheds some light on this issue. In Papudesu v. Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association of Rhode Island, the insurance company paid $500,000 to settle plaintiffs' wrongful death lawsuit involving a stillborn birth. The doctor objected because he was confident he would win at trial and believed that a settlement would adversely affect his professional reputation and, maybe more importantly, a settlement would cause the cost of his malpractice insurance to go up.

Continue reading " Doctor's Consent to Malpractice Settlement " »

A Queens couple was awarded $5.5 million by a hospital medical malpractice lawsuit involving injuries that occurred during childbirth.

The Business Wire article is really a press release so we don't exactly have impartial journalist providing the information. Remember in this post I'm taking the press release at face value ($5.5 million verdict makes this easier), it sound like the delivering doctor's arrogance contributed both to the woman's injuries and the jury's verdict. Ultimately, the claim is that the woman asked for a c-section and the doctors and nurses just ignored her.

Sometimes, I think malpractice lawyers get so bogged down in the medicine that I think there is a tendency to forget the human aspect of how juries react to doctors. This doctor apparently testified that he wondered in and out while this woman was begging for a c-section. Either he was not properly prepared to testify or the doctor was just too arrogant to control. Because you can say the same thing without sounding like a complete jerk.