On our website, we provide an overview of ProAssurance, which is one of the top three providers of medical malpractice insurance in Maryland.
Recently in Medical Malpractice Category
Section 3-2A-04(b) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article requires medical malpractice plaintiffs in Maryland the requirement that they file, within a prescribed time, a certificate of a "qualified expert" attesting to the defendant's departure from the applicable standard of care and that the said departure proximately caused the plaintiff's alleged injuries. The statute states that the plaintiff's claim or action "shall be dismissed, without prejudice, if the plaintiff fails to file a certificate of a qualified expert...."
So who is a qualified expert? The term "qualified expert" is not specifically defined by the statute although the statute does have provisions that set forth the necessary qualifications that an expert must give for a Maryland medical malpractice case to proceed. The statute sets forth the requirement that the certificate may not be signed by a party, an employee or partner of a party, or an employee or stockholder of any professional corporation of which the party is a stockholder. Section 3-2A-04(b)(4) also sets forth the controversial 20% rule: an expert may not devote annually more than 20 percent of his professional activities to activities that directly involve testimony in personal injury cases.
What are professional activities? That is the subject of another blog post.
How many doctors are committing medical malpractice? The reality is not many doctors are regularly committing malpractice on their patients. But a small percentage of doctors get a disproportionate amount of medical malpractice claims. For all of the chatter about what is to be done to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits, meaningful change will not come until we can do a better job of policing that minority of doctors.
Doctors do not do a great job of policing themselves. Lawyers do a much better job. I see you rolling your eyes. So let me explain.
Lawyers are ultimately judged by our bosses: judges. There is a built in distance between these two brands of lawyers that allows for better oversight. Doctors are being judged by other doctors. Totally different arrangement.
What is the better solution to disciplining bad doctors? I don't know. This post just identifies the problem.
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.
What has surprised a lot of medical malpractice lawyers is how little these cases have reflected the public mood on malpractice. People who learn of these cases simply process them consistent with the world view they already had on the topic of whether malpractice cases are largely meritorious and whether the system needs to be changed.
One cause of malpractice injuries in Maryland is medication errors. Most are harmless but a minority of medication mistakes end in tragedy.
Two leading health care organizations announce a plan to reduce medication errors, announcing a new national alert system that helps prevent dangerous and repeated medication errors. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) are partnering to develop the National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors (NAN).
Will it help? Who knows? But we need to try more solutions to the medical error problem in this country, even if it means a few failed plans.
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.
The goal of the certificate requirement to weed out nonmeritorious claims at an early stage. The problem is that defendant's medical malpractice lawyers are using this opportunity to try to weed out good malpractice lawsuits on technicalities instead of the merits.
This is a example certificate for a medical malpractice lawsuit in Maryland.
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.
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.