Recently in Medical Malpractice Category

Two of the most famous medical malpractice cases - at least potentially -  in history have occurred in the last year: Joe Murtha and Michael Jackson.  In Maryland, we also recently had the St. Joseph's stent debacle which may go down in Maryland history as its most famous medical malpractice cases.  

One cause of malpractice injuries in Maryland is medication errors.  Most are harmless but a minority of medication mistakes end in tragedy.  

Maryland's Medical Malpractice Act was enacted "for purposes of weeding out non-meritorious claims and to reduce the costs of litigation. Walzer v. Osborne, 395 Md. 563, 582 (2006).  Accordingly, Maryland requires a certificate of merit as a gatekeeper to keep out medical malpractice lawsuit that do not have merit. 

For malpractice lawyers looking at Maryland malpractice law, we have put together a summary of Maryland medical malpractice law.  

The statute of limitations in New York for medical malpractice is two and one-half years from the date of injury.   The New York medical malpractice statute may be extended in cases where there is continuous treatment by the doctor who committed the malpractice, or when the medical provider has left a foreign object in your body.

In Maryland, to overrsimplify at bit, he medical malpractice statute limitations is three years which, in some case can be extended to five if the Plaintiff could not have known of the connection of the injuries and the malpractice.  Arguably, Maryland medical malpractice law imposes a statute of repose which means that five years is an absolutely cutoff.  

Geri Barish, the president of 1 in 9: The Long Island Breast Cancer Coalition, said she supports a bill in the New York legislature extending the amount of time one could file a lawsuit from 2.5 years after a medical malpractice mistake is made to 2.5 years after the link between the malpractice and the injury is discovered.

Obviously, this rule is supported by Maryland malpractice lawyers in Maryland as well for a simple reason: it creates less frequently results that offend everyday notions of justice.   It you can never bring a malpractice lawsuit because you just didn't know your doctor's careless caused your injury, that is just not fair.

The Maryland Malpractice Lawyer Blog has a post on hospital infection lawsuits in Maryland.The summary: the notion that "infections just happen" in the absence of negligence is a dying theory because hospitals that have set their mind to becoming infection free have - as this post illustrates - stunningly better data on hospital infections.If you are looking for a lawyer for your Maryland staph infection claim, call 800-553-8082 or click her for a free consultation via the Internet

The Arizona Senate has voted to make it harder to successfully sue emergency medical providers for alleged malpractice.

The Arizona's Senate's 21-8 vote Monday approving a bill to raise the required burden of proof for claims of negligent care sends the measure to the House.  The article is unclear but I think I recall that the new standard is "clear and convincing" evidence.  A harder hill to climb for malpractice victims in Arizona.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the same bill in the past.  Far away as the head of Homeland Security, I doubt she is thrilled that the Arizona legislature is rolling over for the doctor's lobby and her replacement is likely to sign the bill if it passes the Arizona House. 

One disturbing response to the high cost of health care - particularly elective treatments that require medical doctors - is medical tourism.  This is an interesting article on the pros and cons of medical tourism.As the article points out, the biggest problem is knowing what you are getting into abroad and the inability to access who can do what well.  

The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has a post about an interesting dispute that arose out of a fee sharing arrangement in a medical malpractice case that settled in Baltimore County.