Lawsuit Information Center

February 4, 2009

State Farm: Another Multiple of the Offer Verdict

Interesting car accident case reported in South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. Plaintiff was a passenger in a car driven by his grandmother, and a hit-and-run driver T-boned them at an intersection. It was a small accident case: medical bills totaling $3,230 and lost wages totaling $4,352.

State Farm, standing by its insured as always because, you know, you are in good hands, offered $6,500. Typical. At trial, State Farm’s lawyer argued during opening statements that the jury could determine whether what the Plaintiff had already been paid was sufficient. Plaintiff’s accident lawyer objected, and the trial judge sustained the objection and later instructed the jury to disregard the setoff argument in its deliberations because any setoff would be handled by the judge.

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December 22, 2008

Pennsylvania Informed Consent Law: New High Court Ruling

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Pennsylvania’s highest court last week in Fitzpatrick v. Natter that circumstantial evidence provided by a plaintiff’s spouse in a medical malpractice lawsuit is sufficient to get past summary judgment in an informed consent malpractice claim. The court found that a Pennsylvania Superior Courty had erred in concluding that Pennsylvania’s informed consent law required the Plaintiff to testify herself about information that was not provided by her doctor.

December 2, 2008

Breast Cancer Statute of Limitations Case in Iowa

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a Scott County District Court summary judgment ruling in an important discovery rule medical malpractice ruling. This case,Rock v. Warhank, is a failure to diagnose breast cancer case, rejecting malpractice defense lawyer claims that Plaintiff should have known of her injury, for purposes of the statute of limitations, just because a doctor made her aware that her breast was not normal.

Sample Iowa malpractice settlements and malpractice law
Breast cancer malpractice stories and case outcomes

October 27, 2008

11.4 Million Award in Birth Injury Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Wisconsin

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Note: We updated this page in 2023 to include Wisconsin birth injury settlements and verdicts.

A Crawford County, Wisconsin jury awarded a brain-damaged child and his family $11.4 million last week after a three-week medical malpractice trial. The article I read did not break down the economic versus non-economic damages of the award. Wisconsin has a cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases of $750,000.

2018 Update: Mayo v. United Healthcare

October 3, 2008

Spiriva Side Effects Lawsuit

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that Spiriva HandiHaler patients may face an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes and other cardiac problems.

Concerns with Spiriva

The Spiriva HandiHaler (generic: tiotropium bromide inhalation powder) is an inhaler for long-term treatment of bronchospasm linked with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This disease is commonly described as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

October 3, 2008

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Paramedics to Proceed, Court Rules

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

What is the capital of France?

Paris is the capital of France.

How many continents are there?

September 27, 2008

Medical Malpractice Informed Consent Lawsuit in Kentucky: Are Punitive Damages Warranted?

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Medical malpractice lawyers filed an informed consent lawsuit last week accusing a doctor of amputating a man’s penis without his consent. In the lawsuit, a Kentucky man alleges that the doctor was only authorized to perform a circumcision. What happened—right or wrong – was the doctor did what he thought he should, to save the patient’s life when he found cancer during the operation.

I won’t prejudge this lawsuit without hearing the evidence. I can certainly imagine a scenario where a doctor finds cancer during a routine operation and does what the doctor believes he must do to save the patient. The Plaintiff affirmed the doctor’s prerogative in this regard by signing a consent form acknowledging that unforeseen conditions discovered during the circumcision “may necessitate additional or different procedures.” But I would reserve judgment on the merits of the case because it really depends on whether reasonable minds could differ as to what was the appropriate course.

But I find disturbing that the lawsuit seeks punitive damages. Unless facts in the case exist that were not included in the Courier-Journal article I read, there is no malice or even recklessness in a doctor – right or wrong – deciding to save a patient’s life.

August 20, 2008

First Bad Faith Car Accident Insurance Claims in Maryland

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Bob Zarbin and Jim MacAlister write a telling article in this month’s journal of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association about Maryland’s new bad faith law. The authors note that the avalanche of bad faith claims the insurance companies said were coming down the pike with Maryland’s new bad faith law was actually only 12 in the first quarter of the 2008 and only 12 all last year.

Similarly, on the medical malpractice front, Maryland malpractice insurers claimed the sky was falling one minute and the next they are declaring $74 million profit to their doctor shareholders and lowering malpractice insurance rates. The legislative process requires that the viewpoints of all stakeholders. But can we at least make sure we put the proper discounted value on “the sky is falling” on the next go around? I’m hoping the next go around includes a revised bad faith law with more teeth than mere costs and expenses.

In the same issue, Kevin Goldberg, who is with Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester in Silver Spring, Maryland, writes a great article laying out a great checklist of avenues to explore when you have a catastrophic accident and what appears to be limited coverage.

August 12, 2008

Res Ipsa in Medical Malpractice Case in Missouri: A New Rule

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in Sides v. St. Anthony’s Medical Center, that plaintiffs in a medical malpractice case in Missouri may rely on an expert’s opinion that the injury would not have happened in the absence of the defendant’s negligence even without a specific proof of a negligent act.

Facts of Sides v. St. Anthony’s

The patient underwent a lumbar laminectomy with spinal fusion and was discharged three days later. Later on, she filed a lawsuit against both the surgeon and the hospital, alleging that she contracted an E. coli infection during the surgery.

August 7, 2008

Topamax Birth Defects

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

There has been an increased concern over the use of Topamax – a treatment for migraine headaches and for epilepsy – during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk of birth defects. There have been reports of birth defects like cleft palates, cleft lips, genital defects.

Besides the anecdotal reports, the respected medical journal Neurology published an article—albeit with a small cohort—that found that women who used Topamax to prevent seizures associated with epilepsy had a much higher incidence of delivering babies with birth defects.

While the study included only 203 pregnancies (178 children), the data found that women who used Topamax while pregnant had babies born with cleft lips or palates 11 times more frequently than you would otherwise expect. These children had genital defects at a rate 14 times higher than would be expected. Of the 178 babies, 16 had major birth defects.