Verdicts & Settlements

Published on: May 1, 2009

Jury Awards Medical Malpractice Victim $12 Million

A Tennessee jury awarded a 33 year old woman $12 million dollars yesterday in what is being reported as one of the states largest ever jury awards. The jury returned the verdict against a local gastroenterologist who left the girl brain damaged after a procedure that was meant to diagnose bowel problems.

The injury occured when the plaintiff suffered a tear in her small intestine during an edoscopic exam. The doctor defended himself by trying to blame the victim for not going to the emergency room quickly enough once she began to experience symptoms of the tear.

Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC is a Chicago, Illinois law firm representing the victims of medical malpractice and other serious personal injury matters for over forty years.

Published on: April 14, 2009

Damages Extended By The Illinois Appellate Court In Wrongful Birth Lawsuits

By Ian R. Alexander

The Illinois Appellate Court, First District has extended damages in Wrongful Birth lawsuits to include the damages the victim will sustain after reaching the age of majority. This is a significant extension beyond the victim’s usual rights in these types of cases which were first recognized in Illinois in Siemieniec v. Lutheran General Hospital, 117 Ill.2d 230 (1987).

Now parents of severely disabled children who were born with disabilities due to the negligence of a doctor who failed to recognize the same in utero can recover damages necessary to care for their disabled child after that child reaches the age of majority. The court stated that from a public policy perspective the financial burden of this type of care should be borne by the tortfeasor and not the state or the chilld’s parents. Additionally, it now appears that the law in Illinois might recognize damages for the negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Justice O’Brien wrote “that such claims are judged by the ”zone-of-physical danger” rule set in Rickey v. Chicago Transit Authority, 98 Ill.2d 546 (1983), which provides that before someone can recover for emotional injuries stemming from the tortious injury of a third person, they must show that they were endangered by the defendants’ negligence and suffered a physical injury because of it” Clark v. Children’s Mem. Hosp., 1-08-0610 (Ill.App. 4-9-2009)

Published on: April 5, 2009

Medical Malpractice Settlement Marathon

By Ian R. Alexander

The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered litigants in medical malpractice cases to take steps to resolve those matters in order to decrease the court’s backlog. Two senior judges have been assigned in Clark County to conduct a settlement marathon in May in the hopes of resolving the 216 oldest cases on the court’s docket. The Judges plan to hold up to eighteen settlement conferences a week.

Apparently Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, has more then 400 medical malpractice cases pending statewide. This number seems relatively small in comparison to the number of cases we have pending in Cook County, Illinois.

Published on: March 22, 2009

Department Of Dirty Tricks

By Ian R. Alexander

Jessica Fargen reported in today’s Boston Herald that a Boston Medical Malpractice defense attorney hired by one of the area’s largest malpractice insurance companies advised a doctor that he could avoid being served with a summons in a major medical malpractice lawsuit if he left the country.

Dr. Eran Bar-Mer finished his fellowship at Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center and was travelling cross-country with the intention to emmigrate to Israel. Allegedly his insurance company appointed lawyer advised him that he was “lucky” to be leaving the country and the jurisdiction of the court. He was ultimately served with the lawsuit when he returned to Boston on business two months later.

Legal proceedings are adversarial in nature. Most lawyers believe in punching hard but punching fair. When a member of the bar advises a defendant whom he represents to leave the jurisdiction of the court to avoid service things have gone a little too far. Hopefully this lawyer has simply lost his way. It is sad when the greed and corruption that has become pervasive in corporate america taints the legal profession.

Published on: March 21, 2009

What Are The Measure Of Damages In A Medical Malpractice Case?

By Ian R. Alexander

Our clients often ask us about damages in medical malpractice cases. Sometimes they tell us that they aren’t interested in financial compensation and only want to do something to make sure that their doctor doesnt hurt anybody else.

The remedy in civil medical malpractice is financial. When we proceed with a medical malpractice lawsuit we go to court seeking money damages. What those damages will be is ultimately a decision that will be made by a jury after being presented with evidence of both economic and pecuniary loss.

Some of our clients are happy to learn that each and every malpractice claim is reported to a national databank which is more or less a doctor’s permanent record. Additionally, the Illinois Department of Professional Responsibility investigates every malpractice claim that goes to verdict or settles to determine if the doctor’s license ought to be affected.

Published on: March 20, 2009

Arizona Jury Awards Record Damages

By Ian R. Alexander

We like to take note of outstanding verdicts and settlements from around the country on our blog. Today an Arizona jury awarded $11 million to the widow of a 36 year old victim of a traumatic brain injury that occured at an assisted living facility.

While a resident at the facility his caregivers force fed him plastic bags, catsup packets, paper towels and candy wrappers which caused an obstruction of his GI tract. These foreign body obstructions directly caused the patients death.

Every patient at every facility deserves to be cared for in a humane and dignified way.

Published on: March 16, 2009

Kentucky Jury Awards $2.5 Million

By Ian R. Alexander

A Kentucky jury awarded a married couple $2.5 million dollars when their medical malpractice lawsuit went to verdict last week.

In 2001, Sophia Savage underwent a hysterectomy at a Kentucky hospital. During the surgery her doctors left behind a sponge which was not discovered until 2005. Doctors discovered the sponge after she complained of pain.

The sponge lodged itself in her lower intestine, requiring her surgeon to remove 49 centimeters of her bowel when the sponge was removed.

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Published on: March 5, 2009

Further Evidence That Tort Reform Does Not Work

By Goldberg & Goldberg

Here in Illinois the legislature passed the Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 2005. The MMRA caps damages and contains other relief that benefits nobody but the state’s insurance companies.

In neighboring Indiana they have tort reform also. Claimants are required to present their cases to a medical review board composed of “independent” doctors. These doctors pass judgement on the merits of a case before a plaintiff can file suit. The cost in terms of time and money is an onerous one for litigants who have been legitimately injured by a physician or hospital.

Case in point, the estate of an Indiana woman received an award from an Indiana Malpractice review panel that has taken almost 5 years to reach a decision in his case. The matter involves Indiana doctor Mark Weinberger who gained noteriety several years ago when he fled the country to avoid his creditors and malpractice claims. The victory is bittersweet in that Indiana law has allowed bankers to get to Dr. Mark Weinberger’s assets before his patient, who will now have to wage another legal battle in hope of receiving a judgment capped by tort reform laws at $1.25 million.

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