We earlier discussed the case of osteopath John King (who now calls himself Christopher Wallace Martin after surrendering his medical license in two states). We’ll state up front: King was apparently deservedly fired for incompetence, and that undoubtedly includes some legitimate cases of malpractice. (Indeed, our original note was how West Virginia’s Putnam County Hospital could have perhaps avoided hiring King had not liability concerns prevented his previous employers from communicating problems to the hospital.) Whether it’s asbestos, fen-phen, or an incompetent osteopath, however, the legal system creates incentives for attorneys and plaintiffs to fake cases and free-ride off of the legitimately injured. A YouTube video documents some curious inconsistencies (which, to be frank, are not entirely persuasive to me for all six plaintiffs in the video). The judge has responded to the video by barring both sides from further communications with the media. (Lawrence Messina, AP/Lexington Herald Leader, Aug. 1; Chris Dickerson, West Virginia Record, Aug. 1; Turkewitz blog). The West Virginia Record calls for a prosecutorial investigation.
Posts Tagged ‘hospitals’
July 27 roundup
- Grand jury declines to indict Dr. Anna Pou in Katrina hospital deaths, despite heavy breathing from Louisiana AG Charles Foti and TV’s Nancy Grace [Times-Picayune, more; 2005 CNN transcript; Health Care Blog, GruntDoc, Vatul.net]
- Protection from lawsuits for “John Doe” security informants is back in anti-terror legislation moving through Congress, despite back-door effort to eliminate it earlier [Fox News, Malkin; earlier] Addendum: but it’s in altered, much-weakened form, says commenter Bob Smith;
- U.K.: Top law firm Freshfields earns millions advising clients on employment compliance, yet “omitted to check that changes to its own pension scheme were legal” [Times Online]
- Thinking of doing some guestblogging, for us or another site? Some good advice here [Darren Rowse via Kevin O’Keefe]
- Even Conrad Black can have trouble affording lawyers, at least with feds freezing his accounts [PoL on Steyn]
- Shouldn’t have let us become parents again: Florida jury awards $21 million in “wrongful birth” case [Fox News]
- Possibility of gigantic reparations claims adds intensity to big lobbying fight in Washington over whether Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians in 1915 amounted to genocide [Crowley, New Republic]
- Updating colorful coverage case (Jun. 22, 2005): dentist wins $750K verdict on insurer’s duty to defend him for taking gag photos of sedated employee with boar tusks in mouth [Seattle Times, more; dissent in PDF; Althouse]
- Giuliani might use federalism to defuse culture wars [Brownstein, L.A. Times; disclaimer]
- Virginia’s enactment of harsh traffic fines (Jul. 6) follows tryouts of the idea in Michigan and New Jersey, where effects included rise in unlicensed driving [Washington Post]
July 17 roundup
- Judge Bartnoff declines to reconsider decision against Roy Pearson in dry cleaner pants case [AP/WUSA]
- Turnabout fair play? Louisville hospital sues trial lawyers, saying they injured its reputation and tried to extort settlement [Courier-Journal]
- Employer sued for “post-traumatic stress disorder” after pranksters post co-worker’s profile on gay section of HotOrNot.com [McCullagh, CNet]
- Former Belleville, Ill. cop sues over prosecutor’s letter suggesting his testimony not to be relied on [M.C. Record]
- British race relations agency demands removal from shelves of Tintin comic book [Telegraph]; 22-year-old in Scotland sentenced for “racially aggravated breach of the peace” after website commentaries that went “beyond the realms of bad taste” [also Telegraph]
- Farewell to that little patch of floating liberty, the South Carolina river shack [Zincavage]
- Hey docs: if a plaintiff’s law firm calls your office to talk about a former patient, don’t call back [Medical Economics via KevinMD]
- Yale Club replies to Judge Bork’s lawsuit [Turkewitz]
- Arizona businesses aghast at hiring-sanctions law that suspends their license to operate should supervisor be found to have hired an illegal [Arizona Republic]
- Grants from Bob Barker foundation (Jul. 5, 2001) help fuel animal rights boom in law schools [NLJ]
- University of Utah settles lawsuit brought by devout Mormon student actress who refused to recite dramatic lines that were blasphemous or obscene [three years ago on Overlawyered]
Scrap over “bandaged-client” graphic
Not just promotional and eye-catching, but creative and artistic too: “A New York lawyer who used a cartoon image of a heavily bandaged patient to advertise his personal injury practice may be entitled to copyright protection for the drawing, a federal judge has ruled.” Richard P. Neimark of Rockland County (toll-free number: 1-888-PAL-RICH) had been using the picture of a bandaged patient lying in a hospital bed in Yellow Pages ads and on his website and had even gone so far as to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office in 1990, so you can imagine his annoyance when a personal injury firm with an office in nearby White Plains, Ronai and Ronai, adapted the drawing for its own ad, later saying it thought the drawing was in the public domain. A federal judge has urged the parties to settle, noting that the Ronai firm had pulled down the graphic immediately and that no evidence had been presented of any actual injury. (Anthony Lin, “Copyright Infringement Suit Over Lawyer’s Advertising Cartoon Continues”, New York Law Journal, Jun. 11).
“Relapses Seen As Patients Abandon Treatment in Response to Negative Law Firm Ads”
A study commissioned by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare and Eli Lilly and Company found that “even when patients were responding well to their prescribed antipsychotic treatment, many requested a medication change because these drugs are featured in law firm advertisements. Other patients stopped taking their medication, often without telling their psychiatrist, for the same reason.”
“Many of our patients already struggle with accepting their illness and staying on their prescribed treatment, and now they are experiencing new levels of fear due to the increasing incidence of these jarring advertisements,” said Dr. Ralph Aquila, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons; director, residential community services, St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY. “This irresponsible advertising is hindering the progress of therapy for many of these patients and disrupting the important relationship between them and their healthcare providers. Plaintiffs attorneys need to consider the consequences that these advertisements may have on patients.”
Twenty-six percent of relapses led to suicide attempts. “Thirty-one percent [of psychiatrists] found patient resistance to starting medication due to concerns generated by law firm advertisements challenging, while 28% are concerned about malpractice risk if they prescribe a drug that’s the focus of product liability litigation.” (Cross-posted from Point of Law)
“Running Doctors Out Of The Emergency Room”
Reader J.B. points us to Tampa physician David Lubin writing in the Tampa Tribune June 11 on the Lucia med-mal verdict we discussed in May. The column is must-read:
Vitamin drink said to cause priapism
A New York man has sued Novartis, maker of the health drink Boost Plus, saying he woke up the morning after drinking the concoction with a case of priapism — involuntary male sexual arousal — that landed him in the hospital. “The company would not comment, but its website “describes the drink as ‘a great tasting, high calorie, nutritionally complete oral supplement for people who require extra energy and protein in a limited volume,’ in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.” Reader Michael McK. suggests that word of the lawsuit may serve to increase the drink’s sales. (“Man Sues Over Long-Lasting Erection”, AP/Breitbart, Jun. 5).
Update: Australian’s failed suicide try
A 19-year-old Australian who fell from a tree and was left quadriplegic after a failed suicide attempt has failed in his effort to lay legal blame on a mental hospital that had discharged him eleven days earlier. Timothy Walker “sued the Sydney West Health Service for negligence, claiming not enough was done to care for him prior to the accident. He claimed the hospital should have prescribed him anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medication, counselled him and detained him as an involuntary patient for at least two weeks for assessment.” However, a judge found that the health service had not rendered substandard care, that it properly declined to prescribe antidepressants because Walker would not promise to stay off liquor, and that it had followed up with home visits after Walker’s discharge, during which he reported feeling better. Walker will, at least notionally, be liable for the hospital’s legal expenses under the rule that costs follow the event (sometimes known as the “everywhere-but-America rule”). (Alyssa Braithwaite, “Would-be suicider fails in hospital sue bid”, AAP/Daily Telegraph, May 25). Earlier: May 9.
Don’t
More things that it’s really inadvisable to do if you’re a lawyer:
- Tell a judge to her face in open court that you consider her “a few French fries short of a Happy Meal” (William Smith of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, facing possible exclusion from the right to practice in the bankruptcy court in question; Crain’s Chicago Business);
- Show up in a hospital room to recruit as client a heavily medicated crash victim, then discourage him from going after the other driver’s personal assets in the case, without mentioning that the other driver is your own wife’s grandfather (Jeffrey Hark of Cherry Hill, N.J., referred for a state-bar ethical investigation although a legal-malpractice claim against him failed for lack of a showing of damages; NJLJ);
- As part of a $59 million settlement of Benlate fungicide-damage cases, accept a secret $6 million side payment from defendant duPont in exchange for (among other services) agreeing to file no more cases (Roland R. St. Louis Jr. and Francisco R. Rodriguez of Miami, disbarred and given a two-year suspension respectively; NLJ, Elefant).
MacDermid v. Discover
Nina Kay MacDermid was bipolar and suffered from drug and alcohol problems. Discover Financial Services did not know this when she successfully obtained a card in her husband’s name and charged $15,000 worth of exotic cats and computer products and other shopping, despite her husband having forbidden her from having credit cards because of her previous manic spending sprees that sent her into personal bankruptcy. MacDermid also obtained cards from American Express and others, but it was checks from Discover that her husband intercepted and confronted her over on February 14, 2003. Ms. MacDermid overdosed on drugs, and was admitted to the hospital for five days that week, but later managed to commit suicide in June, which Mr. MacDermid claims in his lawsuit was a surprise. Mr. MacDermid complained to Discover in March that he had not authorized the card, but sued Discover, claiming that Discover’s resulting attempts to collect on Ms. MacDermid’s debts from the cancelled card was what actually drove her to suicide. (A psychiatrist conveniently submitted an affidavit that MacDermid would have been peachy keen if not for Discover’s actions, notwithstanding her substantial history of mental illness.) A magistrate judge dismissed the case under 12(b)(6), but the Sixth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Boyce Martin, resuscitated it on a theory that Discover’s allegations of criminal violations may have been an intentional infliction of emotional distress. The opinion does not cite this month’s Twombly decision, which perhaps explains the wild save of the almost-surely doomed case, and Discover will now have to spend additional money defending it—which is why your credit-card interest rates are so high. (MacDermid v. Discover Financial Services (6th Cir. May 29, 2007) (via Bashman)). The opinion contains a variety of gratuitous slams at Discover for being a victim of MacDermid’s fraud.