Marietta Injury Lawyer Blog

WE THE PEOPLE from Georgia Justice on Vimeo.

The above video illustrates why we need government watchdogs, consumer advocates and Georgia trial lawyers fighting for the constitutional right to a jury trial. If you watch the video you will understand why the American System of Civil Justice should be protected from the insurance companies. We continue to pray for a favorable ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court to return Georgia to a place where judges and juries decide what is appropriate compensation for medical malpractice victims.

Proponents of civil justice are celebrating and insurance companies are fuming in the wake of yesterday's decision by the Illinois Supreme Court. Illinois' highest court ruled capping damages for victims of medical malpractice violated the State Constitution's separation of powers clause by imposing decisions reserved for judges and juries. That is a huge win for the citizens of Illinois.

I've defended a huge number of doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice lawsuits, I have doctors in my family, and I have a really high opinion of the medical profession. As a Georgia medical malpractice lawyer, I recognize healthcare is a problem in our country. However, caps on medical malpractice damages are not the answer. Unless the question is how do we further victimize those that have been catastrophically injured by medical negligence.

For those that don't know, medical malpractice caps mean this: No matter what a doctor or hospital does to you. No matter how egregious the malpractice. No matter if the consequence is death, dismemberment, or disfigurement. You CANNOT recover what the judge and jury think your case is worth if it exceeds the arbitrary cap. In Georgia the cap is $350,000. If you are a housewife, retired, or unemployed and killed by a doctor's negligence the judge and jury cannot decide what your life is worth, $350,000 is the max. If a checked-out doctor cuts a baby's penis off during circumcision, refuses to acknowledge her mistake, and the baby is forced to live a life disfigured, the jury's verdict will be reduced to the arbitrary cap. Caps on damages were created by insurance companies to erode the civil justice system of trial by jury. For all its flaws, the American system of justice is still the best system in the world.

Thankfully, Illinois was protected from these caps by the State's Constitution and their high court's willingness to enforce it. The Supreme Court of Georgia is expected to rule soon on our medical malpractice caps. I, like many others, hope and pray Georgia will soon also be free from the injustice of caps.

Insurance companies are waging war on the American Civil Justice System. They consider the Right to Trial by Jury and the Rule of Law unnecessary speed bumps reducing insurance company profits. Insurance companies began their organized attack on the constitutional right to a trial by jury since before this Georgia Injury Lawyer started practicing law, over ten years ago. In recent years, Insurance companies in Georgia have been specifically targeting victims of medical malpractice.

Luckily, many still believe the American Civil Justice System is still the best system in the world and have taken up the fight to defend the Right to Trial by Jury. Recently, a leading civil justice blog addressed the question how many hoops should medical malpractice victims have to jump through to obtain justice? It is an excellent read.

For nearly two decades, the American Cancer Society has been recommending annual mammograms beginning at 40. However, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel of doctors and scientists, recently issued a controversal report that mammograms are not recommended until age 50 and then only every other year. In response to the government report, the Cancer Society's chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley stated "This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over,"

Dr. Brawley went on to offer this sharp criticism of the report: "The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, Brawley wrote. That stance "is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them," he added.

As a Georgia Injury Lawyer that deals with insurance companies on a daily basis, I'm concerned about the insurance implications this task force report will have on healthcare. Although research shows annual mammograms beginning at age 40 save lives, I fear health insurance companies will use this recent report to justify refusing payment for mammograms before the age of 50 and then only authorize mammograms every other year. Like prexisting conditions and other insurance created concepts, this will give insurance companies additional opportunities to accept premiums without providing appropriate benefits.

Continue reading "The American Cancer Society Sharply Critical of New Mammogram Standards; "Annual Mammograms From Age 40 on Save Lives"" »

With all the reports recently of preventable medical errors, today CNN printed an informative article "How to avoid falling victim to a hospital mistake." The average person would be shocked by some of the stories I hear on a regular basis as a Georgia Medical Malpractice Lawyer. The Joint Commission, which provides accreditation for hospitals, reports that wrong-site, wrong-side and wrong-patient procedures occur more than 40 times each week in the United States.

The above CNN article arms patients with simple practical knowlege that can help prevent these types of errors. One example is to repeat your name, date of birth, and the procedure you are having to each and every nurse, tech and doctor involved in your care. I would recommend reading this article for anyone undergoing any hospital testing or surgery in the near future.

Insurance companies are spending millions of dollars each year lobbying State and Federal government to limit medical malpractice victim's access to the courthouse with various tort reform measures. Insurance companies justify their endless attack on the right to trial by jury with the argument that the majority of medical malpractice claims are frivolous. However, the recent studies published by the non-partisan National Institute of Medicine indicate 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year as a result of preventable medical errors and as many as 1,000,000 are seriously injured.

Nearly every day as a Marietta Medical Malpractice Lawyer, I hear another heartbreaking story of death or serious injury due to preventable medical errors. A recent report of the AAJ highlights several true stories of medical error victims including that of Blake Fought. Blake was only 19 years old when he was set to be discharged from the hospital following an illness that required a central line IV. His nurse had never been trained to remove the IV and did not follow proper procedures, causing air bubbles to invade his heart and brain. As a result of this preventable error, Blake died in front of the nurses and his parents.

Continue reading "Georgia Victims of Medical Malpractice Need a Fair Chance at Justice; 98,000 Americans Die From Preventable Medical Errors Each Year." »

Georgia victims of medical malpractice, and the insurance companies that provide insurance to doctors and hospitals, are anxiously awaiting the Georgia Supreme Court's ruling on whether damages caps are unconstitutional. Marietta Daily Journal columnist Joe Kirby recently addressed the issue in his article, No Miracle Cure.

It has become a regular practice in Georgia for nursing homes, assisted living, rehabilitation centers, and long-term care facilities to include forced arbitration contracts in the required admission documents. These mandatory arbitration contracts are forcing Georgia's elderly citizens to waive their constitutional right to a trial if they become victims of medical malpractice or abuse at the hands of the nursing home. First, these arbitration contracts are typically hidden in a stack of admission documents. Additionally, it is impossible for patients and families to contemplate the magnitude of what they are signing at such a stressful time. Nursing home admissions are often made under emergency situations or when a potential resident or family is faced with inadequate resources to care for a loved one; and when they sign this document they are forever waiving the right to seek civil justice in a court of law with no regard to the severity of the neglect, abuse, or malpractice.

In the nursing home medical malpractice cases we have handled involving forced arbitration agreements, clients tell us they had no idea they had signed such an agreement and certainly did not realized they were waiving the right to pursue a claim for neglect, abuse, or malpractice. The types of cases most affected by this wide spread nursing home practice are typically catastrophic - such as amputations caused by undiagnosed and untreated medical conditions, painful pressure sores that untreated lead to infection, amputation, and death, serious injury and death from malnutrition or dehydration, and physical and sexual abuse. Although Georgia law (See O.C.G.A. § 9-9-62) is supposed to render these offensive arbitration contracts unenforceable, nursing homes have gotten around the law arguing the doctrine of Federal Preemption. Although, thus far, our medical malpractice lawyers have been successful in defeating the mandatory arbitration contracts we have encountered in our cases, these agreements are being enforced by Georgia Courts in some circumstances.

Continue reading "Many Georgia Wrongful Death and Personal Injury Plaintiffs May Not Get Their Day in Court Due to Forced Arbitration." »