Articles Posted in North Carolina

This page will look at medical malpractice cases involving birth injuries in North Carolina. We will review the key points of North Carolina tort law and examine the settlement value of North Carolina birth injury lawsuits based on reported settlements and trial verdicts.

What Is a Birth Injury?

birth injury is defined as a physical injury, damage, or harm inflicted on a baby because of something that occurs during the process of childbirth (or pregnancy). Birth injuries differ from birth defects in that they are not genetically inherited. Instead, birth injuries are a product of events going wrong during delivery, usually as the result of medical negligence.

North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers looked at the 5,401 med-mal cases filed in North Carolina from 1998 through 2006 and compiled a few statistics. The median jury award in medical malpractice cases was $301,300. The largest medical malpractice award was $8.1 million.

Looking at personal injury cases in North Carolina generally, Jury Verdict Research estimates the median award in North Carolina is $10,000. Personal injury plaintiff receive damages in 61% of cases that are tried (the national average is 53%).

The average jury verdict in medical malpractice cases in North Carolina is relatively low. I do not have the national median for medical malpractice cases in front of me but the average – as opposed to the median which makes a difference – is over $1 million. The national median for personal injury cases generally is $38,179 which means that North Carolina and the nationwide plaintiff recovery probability, the number of plaintiff verdicts to total verdicts, is 53 percent.

vascular surgeon malpracticeNorth Carolina Lawyers Weekly has a good article on a $2 million verdict against a vascular surgeon that I think interests both medical malpractice attorneys and surgical malpractice victims.

Facts of the Case

Plaintiff went to Pitt County Memorial Hospital for vascular surgery. She had suffered for years with a vascular disease that left her with only half a kidney that was not functioning very well. She was suffering pain from an aortic aneurysm.  This is a bulge in a section of the aorta which is our main artery that carries oxygen from the heart to the rest of our body.  It is a dangerous condition.  In a nutshell, this woman was frail and having real health issues.

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A federal judge in Georgia granted the United States’ motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the 10-year North Carolina statute of repose barred claims for plaintiffs’ alleged exposure to solvents and benzene in public water at Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. Plaintiffs were exposed to these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from 1957 up until 1987.

  • New September 2023 Lawsuit Update: The Camp Lejeune lawsuit was revived by the Camp Lejeune Justice Act which is poised to be passed by Congress. This bill allows victims to file a water contamination lawsuit.  Settlement offers have already been made.

Then, along comes this draconian statue of repose. Unlike the statute of limitations, the statute of repose starts running whether or not you are aware of any defect and may toll even before you are injured.

These are North Carolina medical malpractice statistics of interest. Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics are from 1998-2009.

  • There are an average of 566 medical malpractice lawsuits filed in North Carolina each year, or one-quarter of one percent of the lawsuits filed in North Carolina. For those who think malpractice lawsuits are increasing in number: there were 496 malpractice lawsuits in 2009, the last year studied.
  • Said another way, from 1998 through 2009, the number of all civil case filings in North Carolina

The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog has a post on a Maryland Daily Record article looking at how President-Elect Barack Obama might change the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals which includes Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

I’ve spent far more time thinking about how President Obama will change the country than his impact on lawyers or even my own clients. But President Obama will nominate judges that I will stand before and argue. While I think President Bush has nominated a lot of good judges, this fact makes me a little happier to be a lawyer today. I’m not saying every plaintiffs’ lawyer will have a better shot at success in front of judges nominated by Obama. I just think they are likely to be fair and reasonable judges.

AIG will pay $18 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who suffered a serious brain injury after he was struck by a truck in the parking lot of an apartment complex. The settlement nullifies a $75 million judgment reached in a North Carolina superior court after an AIG subsidiary declined to defend the case. Why they declined to defend the case is anyone’s guess, but it certainly was a screw-up that probably increased the value of this case.

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