In response to the fusillade of abuse it got from trial lawyers and their allies over its Dec. 15 cover story “Lawsuit Hell” (see Dec. 8, Dec. 12, Dec. 15), Newsweek has now published (Jan. 12 issue) a short editor’s note (reprinted at end of this post) standing by its reporting as “both accurate and fair”. (More later today on this.)

ATLA, Public Citizen et al. had complained loudly about how the magazine reported a jury award against Stanford University’s hospital as being $70 million while supposedly concealing from readers that the “present value” of this future stream of outlays was only $8 million. Newsweek’s editors respond effectively to this charge, but we will add one further point to what they say, namely that other major press outlets likewise reported the (accurate) $70 million figure at the time of the Stanford verdict. ATLA would have looked rather silly had it made clear that its complaint was about the magazine’s having followed the lead of the AP, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Recorder (PDF reprint) on this point. More: Lawyers’ Weekly USA now trumpets the Stanford case under the $71 million banner as one of its “Top Ten Jury Verdicts of 2003“.

Newsweek’s editorial note follows:

“NEWSWEEK received a large volume of mail from trial lawyers critical of our cover story. We stand by the story as both accurate and fair. The criticisms are for the most part easily refuted with material in the public record. Example: we reported that in Kentucky, a mother sued her daughter’s school after the girl had performed oral sex on a boy during a schoolbus ride returning from a marching-band contest. The woman blamed poor adult supervision, saying her daughter had been forced. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America challenged this reporting, citing an article in the Lexington Herald Leader that, ATLA claimed, reported that the Board of Education ruled that the act was forced and that the girl had been sexually assaulted. The article, in fact, merely reported the lawsuit’s claim that the school board had ruled the act was forced. The board denied in court papers having made such a determination. It also denied that the girl had been sexually assaulted. A correction, and a clarification: We reported that ?insurance companies pay to settle the vast majority of claims? in medical malpractice lawsuits. In fact, they pay to settle roughly 30 percent of such claims. We also reported that a jury delivered a $70 million malpractice judgment against Stanford University’s hospital. Under a California law permitting payment of such awards in periodic installments, a judge could allow the defendants to satisfy that judgment by putting aside a much lesser amount (probably between $5-8 million) now. No such determination has yet been made; even if that happens, the plaintiff is still to be paid $70 million over time.”

Filed under: AAJ, hospitals, Kentucky, medical, Public Citizen