A Frederick County (Virginia, not Maryland) jury awarded a woman $3 million against a doctor who performed a hysterectomy. After a reduction for the cap, the woman's recovery will be $1,925,000.
Plainitff's malpractice case was that the doctor used tissue from the rectal wall to repair the woman's vaginal cuff during the hysterctomy rather than peritoneal material. Post trial motions for remittur were rejected.
Settlement for $1.8 million was reached in a medical malpractice lawsuit where the jury this June awarded $4 million against an emergency room doctor. While that sounds like a major compromise, there is a cap on medical malpractice awards in Virginia, so the actual verdict after the cap was $1.8 million.
Plaintiff's Virginia medical malpractice lawyers alleged that a doctor misdiagnosed their 25-year-old client's heart condition. Plaintiff's condition was eventually diagnosed by doctors at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore.
This case had complications in discovery because of a problem I have discussed before: one lawyer representing all of the doctors (you can find the details in this article on the case). Defense medical malpractice lawyers love when doctors lock hands and sing "all for one, one for all." The problem is that this invariably leads to conflicts when the doctors could very easily point at each other.
Metro Verdicts Monthly provides the following data to give the median (not average) settlement and verdicts for ankle fracture injuries:
District of Columbia: $66,000
Virginia: $21,700
Maryland: $88,000
My comment? People rarely have minor ankle injuries in car accidents in my experience. So I think a lot of slip and fall ankle injuries are included in here which lowers the value from pure auto accident ankle injury claims (or malpractice claims which are more rare for ankle injuries). I don't think we have ever had an ankle injury case settled for less than $150,000 and I can think of one that settled for over a $1,000,000 (although that case had other complicated injuries so it is hard to sort out where the value was in the case).
For more analysis of this data and more data on ankle injuries verdicts nationally, check out this Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog post.
Related Posts
Valuing Injury Cases in Maryland (value of accidents in Maryland)
Valuing Cases in Virginia (general info on Virginia injury case results)
Valuing Cases in Washington D.C. (general infomation on Washington D.C. personal injury case results)
A Fairfax County, Virginia jury has awarded $3.2 million to an Ikea shopper in Potomac Mills who had 350 pounds of countertops fall on her, crushing her pelvis and effectively ending her avid pursuits of hiking and biking around the world.
The lawsuit Plaintiff filed in Fairfax County alleged that the countertops were stacked upright on their short sides rather than their long eight-foot sides and were restrained only by an elastic bungee cord.
There are commonly lawsuits in these types of facility operations cases where heavy loads are not property stabilized.
You can find the Washington Post story here.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly reports on an insane case in Virginia where an emergency room doctor in Hampton received a defense verdict.
After a night of partying, the decedent and his friend got into a dispute over whether the decedent would drive drunk from Hampton back home to Atlanta with his 4-year-old son. The best friend did what best friends usually do - he stabbed him in the thigh.
The decedent was taken to the emergency room. Plaintiff's malpractice lawsuit claimed that the emergency room doctor should have sought out detailed information about the length of the knife. The defendant was told only that the decedent was stabbed with a knife and that the length of the blade was unknown. The defendant assumed it was a small blade.
Turns out it was a very large blade and his injuries did not resolve. As the decedent was deteriorating, following a transient response to the fluid resuscitation, the defendant called in a general surgeon who arrived three hours later and told the ER doctor that the decedent was in hemorrhagic shock secondary to a stab wound and blood loss. The general surgeon instructed the emergency room physician to transfer the decedent to the ICU. Sadly, the stabbing victim died.
Plaintiff's Virginia medical malpractice lawyer contended that the defendant should have responded more aggressively to treat the injury.
People who get stabbed and blame their injuries on medical malpractice usually don't fare too well at trial. So the defense verdict is no surprise. I was surprised that an offer of $500,000 was rejected. Usually, in a case where the jury has an easy target to blame - the criminal who stabs the victim - it becomes difficult to pin the injuries or death on medical malpractice. But in this case, they got a $500,000 offer. I wonder whether it was the family or the malpractice lawyer that suggested rolling the dice.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly reports in a $5 million settlement in a motorcycle accident case involving car that crossed the double yellow lines and struck a motorcycle head-on, causing catastrophic injuries, including an above-the-knee amputation. The injured motorcycle victim received $4.5 million; his wife received an additional $500,000.
The motorcycle accident victim required $116,265.14 in medical bills and is expected to incur over $700,000 in future medical bills.
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 spend 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 is going to nominate judges that I am going to stand before and argue. While I do 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 is going to 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.
Metro Verdicts provides this month information on facial scarring settlements and verdict in Maryland and Virginia. The median facial scarring verdicts in Maryland and Virginia are $20,000 and $32,500, respectively.
These numbers seem bizarrely low. Of course, I’m not really sure about the inclusion criteria for this study. How do they define facial injuries? Are they permanent? Must they be visible? Because for what I consider facial scarring, these number seem shockingly low.
Related Posts:
What is the Value of My Personal Injury Case? (analysis of how value is determined in personal injury cases)
Value of Personal Injury Cases in Your State (state-by-state comparision)
There are NuvaRing lawsuits pending in an MDL (cases consolidated around the country in Missouri) and in New Jersey. Even though Organon is a New Jersey defendant, it sought to remove the NuvaRing cases because Organon was not "properly joined and served" under §1441(b) because Organon was not served with a tracking assignment number as required by New Jersey law.
No tracking assignment number? Who thinks of these things? Sure, strictly construed void of any sense of fairness or context, the statute the rule would preclude removal by an in-state defendant who has not been "properly joined and served" at the time of removal. But would a judge be such a foolish hypertechnical slave to the language beyond logic, reason and the legislative intent of the statute?
Thankfully, no.
The New Jersey District court found that strict adherence to the plain language of the statute would defeat the legislative intent and, accordingly, the law should not be interpreted to produce an absurd result.
If you are interested in learning more about the lawsuits involving NuvaRing, click on the "lawsuits involving NuvaRing" link above.
Florida lawyers have filed a lawsuit on behalf of children who are supposed to be compensated pursuant to a well intentioned by awful program Florida has for children with birth injuries. The purpose of Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA) is to compensate children with birth injuries. This statutory scheme, was created 20 years ago in Florida, also insulates doctors from medical malpractice in many most significant medical malpractice case in Florida. This means if you have a cerebral palsy case in Florida, you have little chance of getting compensation for the child. Virginia has a similar scheme that is just as awful.
According to the recently certified class-action lawsuit, parents have been misinformed about their rights and NICA has refused to make payments. So not only are children who are suffering the most egregious injuries not being fairly compensated, they are also - at least according to this lawsuit - being victimized by the very law that takes their rights away.
My two volume treatise Insurance Settlements is now available from James Publishing. The book discusses how to position a lawyer's car accident, truck accident, medical malpractice or product liability case to the best possible settlement at every step along the way (until the state's high court affirms the judgment).
Click on the James Publishing link. If you have any comments on the book, please email me at ronmiller@millerandzois.com under the subject "Insurance Settlements Comments."
Our lawyers are reviewing Byetta claims after the FDA announced this week that the diabetes drug has been linked to severe pancreatic problems in dozens of patients. On Monday, the FDA warned patients taking Byetta to discontinue use if they develop symptoms of the disorder. Further the FDA said that doctor prescribing Byetta should consider other prescription options for patients with a history of pancreas problems.
Since Byetta was introduced into the United States in 2005, more than 700,000 patients have used the Byetta.
Our lawyers are now exploring potential Byetta lawsuits. If you would like to discuss your case with a Byetta lawyer, call 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consulation/case evaluation (or even to answer any question you may have). For more information on Byetta and the concerns with Byetta, click here.
Last week, Digitek manufacturer Actavis Totowa recalled over 65 different drugs made at their New Jersey manufacturing plant. The list of recalled drugs (in some form or another) includes such generic drugs as Bellamine, Buspirone, Carisoprodol, Oxycodone Meperidine, and Rifampin. This strengthens the conclusion that the New Jersey plant that made these drugs may be the cause of irregularities in Actavis medications.
In April 2008, Actavis recalled Digitek, a drug prescribed to treat heart failure and irregular heartbeat because it was discovered that Digitek tablets appeared to have double the thickness – and likely double the active ingredient – listed on the label. When Digitek is given in abnormally high doses it can lead to digitalis toxicity which, paradoxically, worsens the problems Digitek is intended to treat, causing nausea or lower blood pressure and other side effects from the Digitek overdose that can lead to the increased risk of stroke or a heart attack.
If you would like to speak to a Digitek recall lawyer about a potential Digitek lawsuit, call 1-800-553-8000. For more information on the Digitek overdose recall or a free consultation on your potential Digitek case, click here.
In the past, Virginia nursing home lawyers have been able to convince Virginia circuit judges to reject the efforts of allegedly negligent nursing homes to force Virginia nursing home claims into binding arbitration. Must more nursing homes are making patients sign these agreements not to arbitrate, according to Virginia Lawyers Weekly. The paper quoted Lauren Ellerman who handles nursing home cases in Roanoke to say that she believes that "at least 75 percent of Virginia nursing home contracts have arbitration agreements in them today.”
Unless Congress grabs this issue from the states we can expect this issue to rise in Virginia nursing home cases in the future.
Jury Verdict Research(r) study reports that
rotator cuff injuries reached a 7-year high in 2006 with a compensatory award median of $72,667. This is almost 50% higher than previous reported settlements and verdicts in rotator cuff injury cases.
Our lawyers have never understood while the national data in these cases was so low. Washington D.C. rotator cuff injuries have averaged well over $100,000 for rotator cuff settlements and verdicts so we have never understood why the national average was as low as it has been. In any event, for whatever reason, rotator cuff verdicts are on the rise.
Our lawyers handle rotator cuff injury cases throughout the United States. Our lawyers have handled scores of rotator cuff injuries in car and truck accidents, typically in side collision or "T-bone" accidents. Our lawyers believe that insurance companies do not give fair value in most rotator cuff injury cases and our lawyers will fight to get you the financial compensation you deserve. Call a rotator cuff lawyer to protect you at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation and case evaulation.
Related Posts
What Is the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim? (how the value of rotator cuff and other person injury settlements are calculated)
Sample Demand Letter (sample letter demanding settlement in a personal injury case)
Handling Your Claim Without a Lawyer (tips and pratfalls)
Lawyers representing Digitek overdose victims have filed nine lawsuits in New Jersey against Actavis Totowa LLL and its parent company Actavis Group, alleging a manufacturing defect in Digitek, namely that some Digitek tablets have contained twice the active ingredient of the drug. Digitek recall lawsuits have also been filed in West Virginia and California.
Our Digitek recall lawyers are reviewing these Digitek overdose cases in all 50 states expecting that a consolidated class action lawsuit will be appropriate (as opposed to this scatting of individual cases). If you want to discuss your case with one of our Digitek lawyers call us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or click here for a free Internet consultation.
The Legal Medicine Blog (Dan Frith and Lauren Ellerman of the Frith Law Firm in Roanoke, VA) have a good blog post today on a pressing issue for nursing home lawyers and their clients: whether mandatory arbitration clauses should be enforced in nursing home cases.
In recent years, nursing homes not only in Maryland and Virginia but around the country have been requiring patients to sign mandatory arbitration clauses before admitting patients. Of course, this stacks the deck against the patient because, among other reasons, it limits discovery into just how awful the nursing home is to its patients generally and the plaintiff in particular.
Many people never see this clause because they rarely read the small print. If they do, think think of the Hobson's choice given to these patients and their families. They can either hope for the best (don’t we always do that walking through the door?) and just waive the right to receive a fair shot at receiving compensation for the negligence of the nursing home or they can go look for a nursing home that does not have an arbitration clause. But, realistically, the decision to choose the nursing home is already made before they get to the arbitration clause.
Hopefully, help is on the way. Congress is looking at this issue. Rep. Linda Sánchez from California has offered a bill that would void any mandatory arbitration agreement executed by a nursing home resident. Not so coincidentally, Rep. Sánchez father recently went to a nursing home.
The husband of a Washington, D.C. pedestrian who was killed by a bus last year, settled his claim for $2.3 with Washington Metro. The Plaintiff's wife had the “walk” signal while crossing the street. A wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Washington Metro was set for trial in October.
The District of Columbia could do what Maryland, Virginia and many other jurisdictions do and cap damages when claims are brought against it or related entities. But the District chooses to do the right thing by requiring itself to be fully accountable for its own negligence.
Last month, I wrote about the Virginia Supreme Court's expected ruling regarding whether tax-exempt physician foundations should have immunity from medical malpractice liability. The TortsProf Blog reports today that the Virginia Supreme Court did the right thing (my words, not theirs) and found that tax-exempt doctor foundations are not immune from medical malpractice liability.
This is an important victory for medical malpractice victims in Virginia who would have been left without a remedy and in the majority of Virginia medical malpractice cases had the Virginia Supreme Court found that these doctor foundations were immune from medical malpractice lawsuits.
In Smigelski v. Potomac Insurance Co., the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed a Montgomery County trial court's judgment in favor of an insurer, finding that under the terms of a workers' compensation policy that excluded coverage outside of Virginia a Virginia resident is not entitled to workers' compensation for injuries sustained while performing work in Maryland.
Claimant, a Virginia resident, was injured installing a roof in Maryland. The Maryland Court of Appeals held that the workers' compensation insurance policy, by its own terms, excluded coverage in states other than Virginia for activities requiring the employer to procure workers' compensation insurance for work outside of Virginia. The Maryland high court also found that because Claimant was an illegal alien, who cannot bring claims under Virginia workers compensation law, there was no basis to extend coverage. In other words, because Claimant could not bring a claim in Virginia, he cannot bring a workers compensation claim in Maryland.
