Trial lawyers push back on medical malpractice reform

"The American Association for Justice announced today it is launching what it called the first phase of a nationwide ad campaign 'to educate lawmakers about the epidemic of preventable medical errors and how tort law changes won't lower costs or cover the uninsured,'" The Boston Globe reports. "The ads, running in Washington publications and on online news sites, say the estimated 98,000 deaths from preventable medical errors is 'like two 737s crashing every day for a whole year.' But the ad concludes: 'Would we blame the passengers or the airlines?'" (Rhee, 9/22).

The New York Times also reports on medical malpractice. Economic Scene columnist David Leonhardt notes that while there is a great partisan divide on the issue, there is also "a lot of research by economists and others with no vested interest," who have drawn factual conclusions. "The direct costs of malpractice lawsuits — jury awards, settlements and the like — are such a minuscule part of health spending that they barely merit discussion, economists say. But that doesn't mean the malpractice system is working." In addition, "[t]he fear of lawsuits among doctors does seem to lead to a noticeable amount of wasteful treatment," estimated to be about "$60 billion a year or about 3 percent of overall medical spending." But researchers have also estimated that few errors lead to action: "only 2 to 3 percent of cases of medical negligence lead to a malpractice claim." The malpractice system may therefore be "expensive in all the wrong ways" (Leonhardt, 9/22).

Malpractice reform demonstration projects

The Associated Press: "In his Wednesday speech and again in (a CBS "60 Minutes" interview), the president signaled he was open to so-called tort reform. Under current practice, doctors and hospitals must pay huge amounts to insure themselves against malpractice lawsuits by patients seeking large court-ordered settlements for poor treatment. … 'I would be willing to ... consider any ideas out there that would actually work in terms of reducing costs, improving the quality of patient care,' Obama said in the Sunday interview, which was taped Friday" (Hurst, 9/14).

The Wall Street Journal: "A central issue in the debate is whether to impose caps on monetary payments awarded in medical malpractice suits. There is broad support among Republicans for such caps, but Democrats have long opposed them" (Davis, 9/13).

The Salt Lake Tribune quotes Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, "Finally, [Obama] is acknowledging the problem and taking some initial steps. But ultimately, it seemed more like lip service than a real commitment." The paper continues: "The president clearly intended his comments about malpractice reform to be an olive branch for the GOP and an indication that even if few Republicans end up voting for his broad reform proposal, he at least made some attempt to include their ideas. … Officials at Health and Human Services say they will provide specifics on how much money will go to ... pilot projects and/or how states will access that cash within the month, but the White House has already given some indication of what projects they would like to see funded. One idea is pre-litigation screening, where patients would have to present their claims to a panel of experts before going to court" (Canham, 9/13).

CBS News on one health system and the way they handle malpractice claims: A University of Michgan Health System "policy of honesty and apology started in 2002, and it's proven to be a shrewd business practice for the 40-member hospital system. Since then, claims against the system have dropped from 262 in 2001 to 83 in 2007. Fewer claims have allowed the system to drop its malpractice insurance cash reserves from 73 million to 13 million. The policy was initiated at the University of Michigan by Rick Boothman, who spent 30 years defending hospitals in malpractice cases" (David, 9/12).

Personal Injury Claims - The How and Why

by Mark Hudson

Picture this, you are driving your car in one lane at the specified speed and suddenly this car in front of you turns sharply to dig his car right into your front right fender. You swerve to the left and slam the brakes, and pull over only to watch the offending car speed away leaving you and your newly dented car behind. Scary, isn't it? It sure is, and even scarier is the fact that this is just one out of the millions of possible ways you risk being injured, because of somebody else's carelessness. So why then should you suffer for someone else's carelessness?

It's pretty clear that you shouldn't. What you should do, though, is to hire yourself a personal injury lawyer and immediately file a claim. I'm sure the example above is something that everyone reading this can relate to -- it's not very uncommon to bump into irrational drivers on the street. Therefore even though there are many other ways in which careless people have caused personal injury to other people, it is no wonder that car accidents are the most common causes of injury caused due to carelessness on part of another person.

So then, if you have been the victim of an unknown person's callousness, it is deemed only just if you have received appropriate compensation for the trouble you have had to go through. In such a scenario it is extremely important for you to hire a personal injury lawyer who is capable of guiding you through the entire process of filing a claim and benefiting from it successfully. Personal injury claims can get really tricky and thus it is important to note that just about any lawyer will not do the trick. It is extremely important (and I cannot lay enough emphasis even if I try to) to have a specialized, experienced personal injury lawyer to help you out, for only the personal injury lawyer will be in a position to know all your rights as a victim of personal injury, and therefore will be the only one to make your claim to compensation, stronger. In other words going to a lawyer for a personal injury related case would be like going to a general surgeon for a complicated heart surgery!

As is the case with all other services providers, some personal injury lawyers are exceptional in their work, while some aren't so good. So how does one know which lawyer is good and which one isn't? Well, it's very simple really; the easiest way is through referrals. Check with friends and relatives and select a lawyer based on their personal experiences, or simply get hold of a directory which not only lists their names and numbers, but also their profiles, complete with details of their age, educational backgrounds and experience.

Another simple way to go about finding a good personal injury lawyer is by using the internet, but regardless of the way one goes about looking for them it is important to go to at least a couple of them and discuss the case briefly with each one of them before finalizing one. Such an exercise is recommended also because discussing the same case with different lawyers and understanding the various approaches that can be used will provide different views and ideas on the case and help broaden the outlook on it.

About the Author
Why is a no win no fee claim the best option for your personal injury claim? Find out at claims4negligence.co.uk

Personal Injury Claims - A quick run-through

by Mark Hudson

Most of us have, unfortunately, been involved in accidents at some point of time in our lives; accidents at home, accidents while traveling, accidents while playing (for the younger ones amongst us), accidents at work, etc, and some of these accidents have even caused us injury. Now most of these accidents may have been 'accidental' but some of them also might have been caused due to negligence on part of another. The moment an accident has been caused due to negligence on part of an unknown party, it qualifies the victim to make a legal claim.

Fortunately for the victim, the eligibility to a legal claim provides much needed relief, but hang on; making a legal claim and having it accepted in the court of law is not an easy task. It is in fact a long drawn process which involves not just making the claim, but also, substantiating it with appropriate evidence against the accused party, which is then followed by going through a list of structured processes laid down by law to finally get to the compensation. The appropriate evidence could be a medical report, a photograph or a voice recording, an invoice or any such document depending on the case, for all you know it could even be an eyewitness! In some cases where none of this is possible one can even get a statement issued by the police stating the cause of the injury to the claimant.

The best thing to do if you have been a part of an accident caused by a third party is to notify the police and get yourself thoroughly checked for any external or internal damage and ensuring the safety of everyone involved in the accident. Having done so, one can then start with the process of collecting the evidence. Once one has collected the evidence one can file a claim. The court or authorities of the law then begin the process of verification of the authenticity of the claim. Invariably it is this process which delays the time taken for the dispensation of the compensation. The court decides upon the compensation by considering the evidence provided and the severity of the damage to the claimant. In case the severity of the damage to the claimant is yet to be determined, the claim compensation can get further delayed. Also since most claims can be seemingly unreal or extremely complex, it takes a while till they are processed, therefore it is best to seek the help of a claims solicitor to ensure efficient filing and quick processing of claims.

Many a times it becomes difficult for the courts to assess the extent of involvement of one party in the causing of damage to the other, in such cases the courts usually recommend both the parties to either mediate and come to a conclusion or to consider an out-of-court settlement. This is where once again one can not only ensure protection for the self from further losses, but also ensure speedy compensation disbursing by seeking help from a claims solicitor.

About the Author
Learn all about making a claim and also about personal injury claims at claims4negligence.co.uk