Articles Posted in Verdicts & Settlements

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Joanne Doroshow wrote an excellent article in the Monday, November 9, 2009 edition of The Huffington Post called Medical Malpractice Tort Reform – We Are Already Suffering And Don’t Need More. She points out that unless you are currently living under a rock you have heard the term “tort reform” but, sadly, probably don’t know what it really means.

In Illinois we have tort reform as it relates to medical malpractice. Starting in 1985, and every ten years thereafter, the state legislature has based some sort of restriction on the publics right to sue for personal injury. In the late 1990s the Illinois Supreme Court struck down these restrictions, overruling the legislature, and finding them to be unconstitutional. The legislature, bowing to pressure from the insurance industry, tried again in 2005 and passed limits on jury awards as they relate to doctors and hospitals only. That legislation is currently being reviewed for constitutionality by the Supreme Court and we expect a ruling on the issue in the near future.

The term tort reform implies that its results would be beneficial to everyone. Sadly, this is not the case. Tort reform in Illinois will only make it harder for average hard working men and women to seek redress for the harms caused to them as victims of negligence. The tort reform movement was started by and is funded by insurance companies. The same companies that have the most to gain financially by limiting jury awards.

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The Lawrey’s restaurant chain has agreed to settle a sex-descrimination lawsuit brought by the United States Equal Employment opportunity Commission on behalf of male employees of the restaurant. The lawsuit claimed that Lawry’s barred men from waiting tables at its restaurants, including the one in Chicago.

The Pasadena, California based chain will make $500,000 available to pay victims and will use $525,000 for training and advertising campaigns in order to comply with the terms of the settlement.

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A downstate Illinois jury returned a $6.74 million dollar jury verdict to the family of a Decatur man killed at on of Archer Daniels Midland’s downstate Illinois facillities. The 26 year old man was working for a St. Louis based company installing pipes at the plant. The accident that was the subject of this wrongful death lawsuit occured in 2007.

Archer Daniels Midland, also known as ADM, is a argiculture conglomerate based in Decatur, Illinois with 270 plants worldwide that process grains and oilseeds used to manufacture food and beverages.

A machine on which the plaintiff was working malfunctioned, spraying him with scalding liquid and steam. The accident caused the plaintiff to suffer burns to over 90% of his body and later caused his death. The jury returned this verdict on behalf of the parents and siblings of the deceased.

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In Illinois there is a stautue of limitations on medical malpractice claims which generally prohibits filing of a lawsuit two years from the date of malpractice or two years after the malpractice is discoverd. The statute of repose sets an outside tail date for filing such claims after four years have elapsed from the time of the initial malpractice. There are certain exceptions to this general statute of limitiations. At Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC we are proud of our work to help protect the rights of brain injured children. As an example of such work we are proud to say that due to our tireless efforts to fight for and protect brain injured children, including those suffering from cerebral palsy, the Illinois Supreme Court extended the statute of limitations for minors suffering from a brain injury indefinitely.

In Bruso v. Alexian Brothers Hospital, 178 Ill. 2d 445, 453 (1997), the Illinois Supreme Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Michael Bilandic held, that a minor who is under another legal disability, such as a brain injury, shall have the statute of limitations tolled on his claim until said legal disability is lifted. As a result, brain injured persons are protected from the statute of limitations until such a time as their disability no longer exists. This is a significant victory for consumers in Chicago, and throughout Illinois.

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Medical Malpractice attorneys won a $14 million jury verdict on behalf of a father and optometrist left bed-ridden and paralyzed resulting from a botched, unnecessary procedure in 2002. According to the lawsuit, Francis Ziadie was suffering from dizziness and slurred speech when he arrived at the emergency room. The next morning, Ziadie complained of short-term slurred speech and numbness in his hand. A CAT scan and magnetic resonance angiography showed no evidence of a stroke. Doctors diagnosed transient ischemic attacks which, according to the standard of care, are treated with aspirin and Plavix. Usually these syptoms resolve themselves within 3-6 months.

Instead, doctors inserted a stent into the patients Carotid Artery. Because the patient was on blood thinning medications at the time, blood leaked from the puncture site and pooled around his brain causing massive pressure damage.

The jury returned their verdict in less then six hours, finding that the plaintiff, now age 53, will require around the clock attendant care for the rest of his life.

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A Los Angeles jury has awarded a California family $7.3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit concerning a hospital’s failure to diagnose and treat a child suffering from meningitis. The jury unanimously awarded the five year old damages for her injury which has left her brain damaged, The defendant in the case was the neonatal intensive care unit at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center. The case is eerily reminscent of cases that Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC has litigated in the Chicago area, including The Circuit Court of Cook County.

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Meningitis is an inflamation, or infection, of the meninges which is a sheath-like protective covering over the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is dangerous because of the close proximity of the meninges to the brain and spinal cord and the risk of devastating brain injury and paralysis. Children don’t often present with classic signs of meningitis, like a stiff neck. Meningitis is diagnosed by sampling the cerebrospinal fluid which can yield proof of an infection of the meninges shortly after samples are obtained.

The typical treatment for meningitis is a prompt regiment of antibiotic and antiviral medication. Left untreated, meningitis can lead to deafness, hydrocephalus, epilipsy and cognitive brain damage.

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The New Jersey state Supreme Court overturned that state’s largest medical malpractice verdict ever, a jury award of $70 million. The reason the case was overturned was because the jury was exposed to medical professionals and the defendant hospital during the jury selection process.

In a 6-0 decision, Justice Helen Hoens wrote for the court, “In light of the relentless and unchecked litany of complaints throughout the selection process, the attorneys had no way of knowing which of the potential jurors who had expressed no bias might later find it impossible to put aside what they had heard from those who had been excused,”

The case involved a 4 month old child who was deprived of oxygen to his brain during surgery to remove a tumor at the base of his spine. The little boy now is catastrophically brain injured and has profound neurological impairment. A new trial is expected.

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Chicago is home to over 70,000 licensed attorneys. Finding a lawyer that is right for you can be a daunting task. The internet and the television airwaves are flooded with advertisements for lawyers that promise big settlements and no fees unless you win. The question you need to ask yourself and the lawyer that you interview is are you qualified, by the nature of your prior experience, to handle my case and see it through to the bitter end.

Medical Malpractice is a very expensive and specialized area of practice. Lawyers who handle medical malpractice litigation typically spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless man hours prosecuting a succesful claim. The skills necessary to be a succesful practicioner are not learned overnight. At Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC we have been in the medical malpractice business for more then forty years. The least experienced member of our firm has been handling medical cases for fifteen years. We work up and try all of our cases ourselves. We can, and routinely do, take appellate matters before the state supreme court. We have represented litigants in all manner of litigation in more then twenty different states.

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When you interview a lawyer that you have become acquainted with over the internet or through a television advertisement ask him if he handles his cases himself or refers them out to a more experienced lawyer. Ask how many medical malpractice jury trials he has taken to verdict as a first chair lawyer. Ask him or her about past results and ask to see jury verdict reports to document his experience. At Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC we have had hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We have the largest personal injury verdict in Illinois history. Our track record speaks for itself. We would be happy to show you examples of some of our results in court.

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Dr. Nicholas Caro is facing disciplinary charges from The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation after being sued for medical malpractice 50 times in Cook County.

In the complaint against Dr. Nicholas Caro, the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation claims Caro failed to properly diagnose a patient’s keratoconus, a pre-existing eye condition that should have ruled him out as a candidate for Lasik surgery. Caro has yet to respond to the allegations. The agency is asking that Caro’s license be suspended or revoked because of his conduct.

The IDPR has been criticized for not aggresively prosecuting physicians who repeatedly subject their patients to risky and harmful medical care and treatment. The IDPR is the Illinois state agency empowered to discipline a doctor’s license in the case of misconduct.

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Juan Johnson, a Chicago resident, was awarded $21 million dollars by a jury in a wrongful conviction lawsuit. Johnson was framed for a 1989 murder and spent eleven and a half years in prison before he was finally cleared of the crime in 2004. The award is the largest ever in Chicago for a wrongful conviction case.

The defendants in the case, The City Of Chicago and former police officer Reynaldo Guevara were alleged to have intimidated witnesses into testifying that Johnson killed a rival gang member outside a nightclub on North and Western Avenues on the northside of Chicago. The former officer allegedly told witnesses that if they didn’t blame Johnson for the murder then they themselves might be implicated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYaOsCVRCI

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