Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

This month's Metro Verdicts Monthly provides the median verdict/settlement in Maryland wrongful death cases for victims over the age of 65 is $600,000.

I always caution about misleading figures but this number is beyond misleading (through no fault of MVM). The data measures Maryland wrongful death settlements and verdicts in the last 23 years and ostensibly includes only cases of which Metro Verdicts Monthly is aware and, with respect to wrongful death settlements, it is not just medical malpractice cases and many wrongful death settlements in car accident cases are purely a function of the insurance policies available (sometimes in malpractice cases, too, but much less frequently).

Also, keep in mind this data includes settlements, which apparently reduce the numbers significantly. In another MVM study, juries have over the last 22 years awarded a median award of $1,337,824 involving victims over the age of 65 in Maryland wrongful death cases.

Still, you cannot ignore the fact that all things being equal, wrongful death cases in Maryland involving older plaintiffs are worth less - all things being equal - than younger victims. There is sometimes a small measure of logic to this: the economic damages awarded in a wrongful death lawsuit are going to be statistically less for an older victim than a younger victim.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Settlements and Verdicts for Older Victims" »

The Baltimore Sun has a short story on the $2.35 million malpractice verdict in Montgomery County against Shady Grove Adventist Hospital.

I wrote last week about the re-trial of a medical malpractice case in Illinois that discussed the issue of juror misconduct. You can find the article on the verdict here.

After that post, the jury reached a defense verdict after about two hours of deliberation.

It is hard to win a case you have already lost on juror misconduct because unless the lawyers dramatically alter their strategy, a pretty good "focus group" has already given their opinion on the case.

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)

The Maryland Daily Record reports on a medical malpractice verdict in Baltimore City last week. Finding a doctor that was not named in the lawsuit negligent, the jury has awarded nearly $1.37 million to the sons of a 34-year-old city woman who died during a surgical procedure at Union Memorial Hospital.

Medical malpractice occurs at Union Memorial Hospital and every other hospital in Maryland. Still, it is worth nothing that Union Memorial Hospital is a underrated Maryland hospital and it has some of the best foot, hand and ankle surgeons in the entire world (as well as a few other particularly excellent specialties).

If you have a medical malpractice claim against Union Memorial Hospital or any other hospital in Maryland call 800-553-8082 or get a free online no obligation medical malpractice claim Internet consultation.

Metro Verdicts Monthly reports on a $1,558,039 jury award in a medical malpractice case in Prince George’s County. Plaintiff’s malpractice lawsuit alleged median nerve damage as the result of medical malpractice. Specifically, Plaintiff alleged the doctor negligently performed the carpal tunnel surgery, resulting in permanent damage to the median nerve.

The jury agreed, awarding $ 1,500,000 for non-economic damages, $ 11,251 for past medicals bills; and $ 46,788 for future medicals bills. The verdict was reduced to $ 693,039 due to the Maryland cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.

The moral of the story in this case for the medical malpractice lawyer in Maryland is that you have to look at the entire case. Many lawyers would have simply stopped at $11,251 in medical bills. The malpractice lawyer in this case kept looking further and, as a result, the Plaintiff got a good verdict – the best verdict she could have gotten in a Maryland medical malpractice case.

Related Post:

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that a Hamilton County jury found that a local, prominent gastroenterologist must pay $12 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit after a colonoscopy and endoscopy, which were meant to diagnose a 33 year old woman's bowel problems, left the plaintiff with serious brain damage.

“It is very, very difficult to get a judgment against a doctor,” said Matt Dwyer, a Georgia medical malpractice lawyer who was apparently brought in on the case. “People don’t like to find doctors at fault.”

Under Tennessee's comparative fault law, the jury found the doctor's medical malpractice was 51% percent of the cause of Plaintiff's permanent brain damage, so the actual verdict is $6.12 million.

Maryland draconian contributory negligence law requires a defense verdict in a malpractice case where a plaintiff is even 1% at fault for an accident. The article does not explain at whose lap the jury placed the other 49% of the fault. But if they placed it with someone other than the Plaintiff, Maryland’s contributory negligence law would ironically lead to a better outcome for the Plaintiff. In Maryland, you can recover a full verdict against any defendant who is a substantially contributory cause of the injury, as long as you were not also a cause of your own injuries.

The Maryland Malpractice Lawyer Blog has a post with a statistical analysis of the chances of the Plaintiff prevailing in a medical malpractice lawsuit in Maryland.

Maryland's average malpractice award payment is nearly $320,000, according to a study by the American College of Emergency Physicians. This is line with the average settlement or verdict nationally of $285,000.

Related Posts

• Values of Different Types of Maryland Malpractice Cases
(a look at how malpractice cases are valued and the value of particular types of cases)
• Average Malpractice Verdict in Maryland
(How are malpractice cases valued?)
• Wrongful Death Settlements and Verdict in Maryland
(a look at wrongful death settlements and verdict in Maryland)

Yes, there are still medical malpractice lawsuits in Texas. It just requires an incredibly serious case. A Dallas County jury last week decided such a case, awarding $17.5 million to a former maintenance man for a North Dallas apartment complex who lost his arms and legs from a staph infection. Obviously, this is just an awful case.

This case involved a staph infection called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a strain of staph that's resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics that are used to treat infections. In this case, the doctor gave the patient eight antibiotics but failed to give the one drug that would have treated for MRSA. The Plaintiff went into septic shock, causing infection and gangrene, necessitating the removal of both arms below his elbows and both legs below his knees.

The post medical malpractice cap award is approximately $7.5 million.