medical malpractice Archives - Page 4 of 19 - New Jersey Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Medical Malpractice Attorneys: When Damages Are Inadequate

When a jury verdict in a medical malpractice case does not appear to be supported by the weight of the evidence, a trial court has the discretion to order a new trial. In rare cases, if a medical malpractice award is viewed as excessive, a new trial could be ordered unless there is an agreement among the parties to lower the award amount. The procedure is known as a “remittitur”. Although a remittitur does not benefit plaintiffs, medical malpractice attorneys can increase the award due to their client when an “additur” is ordered.

How an Additur Benefits Plaintiffs

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys inadecuate damages In some cases, a plaintiff will be awarded a new trial if the damage amount found by the jury appears to be inadequate. In that case, a court will require the case to be retried unless the defendant makes certain concessions. A defendant may agree to pay a larger amount than that which was awarded by the jury in order to properly compensate the plaintiff and avoid a lengthy re-trial. Courts, both on the trial and appellate level, lack the authority to increase the jury damage assessments by themselves. This is the reason why a new trial will be necessary for the plaintiff to be compensated in the event that the judge notices that the amount due to the plaintiff is too small. Medical malpractice attorneys believe that an additur is a useful tool in cases when it was clear a healthcare provider breached the standard of care and yet the jury did not find an appropriate damage amount.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

If you or a family member have recently been the victim of medical negligence, it is possible that you would like to speak with our professionals. Please contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys: Don’t Know What You Got until It’s Gone

The law recognizes a spouse’s right to the love, company, affection (including sexual) and service of the other spouse and this is referred to as “consortium”. Unfortunately, in many medical malpractice cases, due to serious injury or death, one spouse may lose the consortium of the one they love. Medical malpractice attorneys will often seek compensation for this loss as part of the damages that a jury awards at the conclusion of a trial.

The Loss of a Loved One Due to Medical Malpractice

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys discuss definition consortium This category of the law has spread in recent years and in different jurisdictions across the United States, other individuals have been able to claim loss of consortium. Some of these individuals include parents, grandparents, and children. It is crucial for lawyers to know the common law in the jurisdiction in which they practice because many people are affected and hurt by medical malpractice aside from just the patient. It is important that those who will truly lose the consortium of the victim be compensated for their loss. This portion of the law is continuing to expand and grow to allow others to bring claims of loss of consortium.

In 2003, a New Mexico court decided the case of Lozoya v. Sanchez. That case was the first time in history that a court was upheld after they recognized the right of unmarried cohabitants who were in an “intimate familial relationship” with the victim. Medical malpractice attorneys for that plaintiff were allowed to seek loss of consortium damages even though there was no official marriage.

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Medical Malpractice Attorneys Recognize Loss of Life’s Pleasures

In a recent trend, some courts across the United States of America have begun recognizing “hedonic damages.” Hedonic damages refer to a plaintiff’s loss of the ability to engage in activities that he or she enjoys. Traditionally, there could be no award and recovery for the loss of life’s pleasures but in some states, this trend is coming to an end. As of 2006, the supreme courts of Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Carolina, Washington, and Wyoming have all allowed medical malpractice attorneys to make separate claims for these types of damages.

The Importance of Doing What You Love

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys hedonic damages loss life pleasures Lawyers believe that hedonic damages should be recognized in all states because the victims of some incidents of medical malpractice will no longer be able to engage in these behaviors. Imagine the case of an avid swimmer who, because of medical malpractice, could no longer kick her feet. Another example would be the golfer who, because of medical negligence, experienced stiffness in his arms and could no longer swing his clubs.

Medical malpractice has a broad range of effects on victims and courts should not be slow to recognize that the loss of ability to engage in activities could be some of the most tragic losses to the patients. Many people see medical malpractice as a single incident and believe that a patient should be compensated only for the doctor’s negligence. This near-sighted approach fails to recognize that because a doctor did not live up to the standard of care, the patient’s entire life is now altered, potentially forever.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

Medical Malpractice Attorneys: Tennessee Moves to Damages Cap

Insurers in the state of Tennessee who cover healthcare providers will not be paying out less money in medical malpractice suits. Tennessee passed new laws earlier this month which put into place caps and limitations on malpractice awards and also stated that insurers will not longer be liable under the consumer protection laws. Medical malpractice attorneys will now be faced with the uphill battle of fighting for the proper compensation for clients within the limited amounts allowed by law.

Non-Economic, Punitive, and Catastrophic Damages All Capped

Governor Bill Haslam made no secrets about his agenda to considerably limit the civil lawsuits within Tennessee. Now with the passing of the “Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011”, medical malpractice attorneys believe that he may have done just that. Pain and suffering, along with other non-economic damages, will now be capped at a maximum of $750,000. Furthermore, the new Act will also limit punitive damages, in both medical malpractice and personal injury cases, to only $500,000. The most shocking, and potentially limiting to plaintiffs and their medical malpractice attorneys, may be the limits placed on catastrophic cases, which will be $1 million but could effect people forever. These cases qualify as the most serious and life altering scenarios of medical malpractice. Some examples of catastrophic cases caused by medical negligence include when patients become paralyzed, blinded, burned, need an amputation, or pass away when children still qualify as minors. This new law seriously inhibits the rights of patients in seeking compensation that will once again make them whole. Although these cases hopefully will not occur too often, in these rare instances it is highly unjust to limit the amount that plaintiffs can seek at trial but such a large amount.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

If you or a family member have recently been the victim of medical negligence, it is possible that you would like to speak with our medical malpractice attorneys. Please contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys Explain the Basics of a Trial

A civil trial, including medical malpractice and negligence, are used to settle non-criminal disputes. Generally, patients are seeking compensation for some sort of wrong and they will hire medical malpractice attorneys to bring forth the case. At trial, both parties present evidence in an attempt to demonstrate their case and persuade the trier of fact, a judge or jury, of the strength of their position. In order to find the truth of the matter, the adversarial approach is used in American jurisdictions to settle civil litigation.

Describing the Adversarial Approach

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys explain trial basics
The lawyers and the defense team will present opposing legal arguments and use the facts of the situation to prove their case as they go head to head against one another. The purpose of the adversarial approach is to arrive at a just result. The logic is that the truth is more likely to become evident when each side contests the facts and law, giving the trier of fact the full scope of the dispute. The burden of proof in medical malpractice cases is a preponderance of the evidence. This standard can be described as the debated proposition, “more likely than not.” For example, if medical malpractice attorneys can prove that it is more likely than not that a doctor failed to live up to the standard of care required by the medical profession and this resulted in harm to the plaintiff, the victim has sustained its burden in proving the case.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

Medical Malpractice Attorneys: Spine Surgeons Susceptible to Lawsuits

When surgeons unintentionally operate on the wrong level of the spine, many patients file lawsuits. Lawyers have found that this is the second most common type of medical negligence behind only OB/GYN physicians. Medical malpractice attorneys point to the case of Douglas and Brenda Ray. vs. Mignucci, from 2004 in Texas. That jury awarded the plaintiffs $134,000 when the surgeon operated on the wrong disc.

Ray v. Mignucci- A Common Occurrence

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys douglas brenda ray versus mignucci case texas
In that case, Doctor Luis Mignucci accidentally removed the T5-T6 thoracic spinal disc instead of the T6-T7 disc. The doctor blamed his mistake on the MRI image which he claimed was unclear, as well as the height of his patient. The patient and his wife filed a lawsuit against the doctor in which they asked for lost wages, medical costs, and non-economic damages such as physical pain, mental anguish, loss of consortium, and loss of household services. Thankfully, the jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded $94,000 to Douglas Ray and $40,000 to his wife, Brenda, for loss of consortium. This field is particularly prone to incidents of medical malpractice and therefore doctors need to be on the look out and attempt to protect their patients against significant injury. Physicians and surgeons should insist on clear imaging before beginning an operation and they should be increasingly careful in counting vertebrae before beginning an operation.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

If you or a member of your family has recently been the victim of medical negligence, it is possible that you would like to speak with our professional attorneys. Please contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys: Infant Decapitated During Child Birth

The story of Micheatria Donelson and her unborn baby is a tragic one. The defendants, doctors and nurses from Northern Suburban Hospital in Louisville, believe that the incident could not have been predicted or prevented by the healthcare providers and it was simply an “unfortunate tragedy”. Medical malpractice attorneys for Donelson disagreed and stated “decapitation should never, never happen”. The plaintiff is seeking damages in the amount of $18 million following this tragic incident and she is still suffering from the loss of her child, battling post traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Medical Negligence or Rare Occurrence

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys decapitation case Northern Suburban Hospital
The defendants argued that the doctors did everything they could and that while this incident was highly unusual, their care was appropriate. Medical malpractice attorneys disagree and claim that the doctor’s failure to remove a cerclage (a small string used to close the cervix and keep the baby in the womb) led to the tragedy. The doctor agreed to using the cerclage originally but then said he removed it because it would be “physically impossible” to deliver the baby with the string still present. A nurse who was present in the operating room had a contrary recollection and claimed that the doctor did not remove the string. When the baby was delivered, the nursing staff sutured the child’s head back on to the body so that Donelson could hold her child for a short time after seeing him decapitated during delivery. According to her lawyers, this has altered Donelson’s entire life. They stated “no one prepared her for what was going on. . . the reason that this is never heard of is because it doesn’t happen unless somebody does something wrong.”

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Medical Malpractice Attorneys: When Medical Negligence Turns Criminal

In recent days, the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, the former personal doctor of pop star Michael Jackson, has been the topic of much attention and conversation across the country. Medical malpractice attorneys note that the case revolves around one question; did the doctor’s conduct surpass mere medical negligence?

Generally, when a doctor commits an act of negligence, lawyers will file a lawsuit as a civil case. In civil cases, plaintiffs seek to be compensated for a wrong committed by a doctor, but there is no risk of facing jail time. In cases of egregious medical errors, district attorneys have the authority to file criminal charges against the healthcare provider.

What is the Standard of Care

medical malpractice attorneys in nj and pa
The standard of care can be understood as the requirement that a doctor act responsibly and cautiously in order to avoid any harm to their patients. Across this country, states have different statutes and codes which define what constitutes medical malpractice. In order for a doctor to be charged in a criminal case, as opposed to the more common civil malpractice cases, he or she must grossly breach their standard of care. In order to achieve a conviction, prosecutors must prove criminal negligence or provide evidence that the doctor put himself in to a position that other doctors would have avoided. Julie Cantor, an attorney with a medical degree and a professor at UCLA School of Law, described the realm of criminal charges following medical malpractice as “a gross incompetence or indifference to a patient’s well being.”

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Medical Malpractice Attorneys: Negligence Kills Wife and Mother

After nearly four years of litigation and appeals, a family is finally able to present their medical malpractice case in front of a jury at trial. Jury selection took place on October 3rd and the family of the late Dorothy Broussard is seeking a number of damages including pecuniary loss, medical services, physical pain and suffering, mental pain and anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, loss of consortium and loss of enjoyment of life. The medical malpractice attorneys on the case claim that a breathing tube connected to Mrs. Broussard was inadvertently removed which led to a lack of oxygen.

Could the Healthcare Provider Have Done More?

Preston Broussard, on behalf of his late wife, filed the lawsuit against Dubuis Hospital and Dr. Sreedhar Polavarapu. The medical malpractice attorneys stated in the lawsuit that the “defendants’ failure to safely monitor and restrain Dorothy Broussard led to the deprivation of oxygen that caused Mrs. Broussard’s untimely demise.” Obviously the lack of oxygen over a sustained period of time had an adverse effect but no one on the staff recognized the problem in time. The medical lawyers found that the saddest part of this story was how the family discovered the woman. The lawsuit stated,

“Plaintiff Cody Broussard, the 10 year old son of Mrs. Broussard, ran ahead of his father into his mother’s hospital room. Cody Broussard was the first person to find the oxygen tube hanging on the side of the mother’s hospital bed, and found his mother gagging for air.”

The woman later fell into a coma and lost her life on July 12, 2005.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys in New Jersey and Philadelphia

If you or a family member have recently been the victim of medical negligence, it is possible that you would like to speak with our professionals. Please contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation, or call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys Continue Discussion About Tort Reform

Patients and doctors have a special relationship and there is a certain element of trust. Patients trust their doctors to perform the proper tests and procedures in order to provide adequate and reasonable healthcare. Many people believe that tort reform is necessary to lower the potential healthcare costs, but medical malpractice attorneys fear that reducing the amount of compensation due to plaintiffs in some cases may be putting too much trust in these doctors. Sure, healthcare costs are exceedingly high in this country. However, by reducing medical malpractice awards through a cap system, people may be forgetting that there is a human element to practicing medicine and serious malpractice victims deserve to be compensated.

Malpractice and Healthcare Costs

new jersey philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys discuss tort reform First, many argue that since insurance companies charge very high premiums for doctors to gain liability insurance, doctors charge their patients more money. Secondly, a doctor’s fear this his or her patients may sue causes them to act in different ways. Many physicians claim that their fear of a lawsuit causes them to order additional tests and procedures (a practice that has since been penned “Defensive Medicine“) just to protect against charges of negligence.

Since doctors pay more money for insurance to guard against lawsuits and order many additional tests, they claim that all costs will be lowered if medical malpractice payouts are reduced. This is a good theory on paper but may not be ideal in practice. Limiting damages in some cases may not be a major deal but, in other cases, medical malpractice attorneys argue that the malpractice has such a traumatic result on the victim that their compensation should not be reduced. In this country, we pride ourselves on having juries of our peers determine what an adequate result is at trial. Do we really want to tell the person who was left blind, brain dead, paralyzed, or permanently disfigured that they can only collect a certain amount of money because of a malpractice cap?