Latest Medical Professional Liability Headlines
All the headlines from our Medical Professional Liability Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mass. Supreme Court Expands Doctors’ Liability to Nonpatients
Dec 11 2007 // A Massachusetts physician is responsible to all third parties who might possibly be affected by his failure to warn a patient about the side effects of a medication, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in a...
W.Va. Doctor Facing Malpractice Lawsuits Files for Bankruptcy
Dec 10 2007 // A former West Virginia doctor facing more than 120 medical malpractice cases lists few assets and a pile of debt in a document filed as part of his bankruptcy proceedings in Alabama. John King’s assets consist of a...
Pa. Gov. Vows to Hold Up Medical-Malpractice Aid
Dec 5 2007 // Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is threatening to withhold state aid to help doctors and other health care providers pay for their medical malpractice insurance unless lawmakers also act on his proposal to expand state health...
Wis. Appeals Court Upholds $8 Million Malpractice Award
Dec 4 2007 // A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld a jury’s $8 million medical malpractice award to a woman whose inner organs were paralyzed by a botched surgery. The state’s medical malpractice fund argued a judge coerced...
Consumer Group Says N.Y. Lags in Medical Malpractice Disclosure
Dec 3 2007 // New Yorkers know less about which doctors have been investigated for medical malpractice than people in other states do, and the agency responsible for disciplining physicians does little to root out misconduct and...
Fla. Malpractice Insurance Rates Down Four Years After Limits Imposed
Dec 2 2007 // Four years ago, many Florida doctors threatened to quit their practices because their malpractice insurance premiums were spiraling out of control. Some doctors retired early, some moved out of state. A few briefly walked...
Federal Panel Asks Miss. Court to Clarify Medical Malpractice Limits
Dec 2 2007 // A federal appeals panel is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to clarify when the clock starts ticking on the filing of certain medical malpractice claims. Specifically, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
Illinois Tort Reform Efforts Struck Down
Dec 2 2007 // If anyone is betting on what organization is running the show in Illinois, my money is on the Illinois Trial Bar Association. Put a check mark in the “win” column recently for the Trial Bar as the 2005 tort...
Pittsburgh Couple Wins $3 Million in Medical Malpractice Case
Nov 26 2007 // A suburban Pittsburgh couple has won a $3 million malpractice suit after the woman’s sinus infection was misdiagnosed and turned into a brain abcess. Lynn and James Flaherty, of Bethel Park, won the suit against...
Florida Malpractice Insurance Rates Down 4 Years after Limits
Nov 25 2007 // Four years ago, many Florida doctors threatened to quit their practices because their malpractice insurance premiums were spiraling out of control. Some doctors retired early, some moved out of state. A few briefly walked...
Mich. Medical Society Says Rate Drop Shows Tort Reform Law Working
Nov 21 2007 // A clear indication that Michigan’s 1993 tort reforms are working is that the state’s largest physician medical malpractice insurer is cutting its premiums by 12 to 25 percent for Wayne County physicians, the...
Federal Panel Asks Miss. Court to Clarify Medical Malpractice Limits
Nov 19 2007 // A federal appeals panel is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to clarify when the clock starts ticking on the filing of certain medical malpractice claims. Specifically, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
Court Rejection of Award Caps Creates Uneasiness Again For Ill. Physicians
Nov 19 2007 // Dr. Kostantinos Psihramis says he wanted to make a difference when he relocated from Virginia to the southern Illinois town of Belleville in late 2005, filling one of two holes created when specialists left the area. The...
$800,000 Settlement Approved in Mont. Psychologist Malpractice Case
Nov 19 2007 // A district judge has approved an $800,000 settlement in a malpractice and fraud lawsuit filed by a Billings, Mont., woman against her deceased daughter’s psychologist. Judge Susan Watters said the settlement amount...
Trial Lawyers Say Research Shows Conn. Medical Liability Insurer Overcharges Physicians
Nov 18 2007 // The Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association released an actuarial analysis that it says shows that, for several years Connecticut Medical Insurance Co. has been overcharging doctors millions of dollars. They argue that this...
Regulating in Good Faith
Nov 18 2007 // Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in early September named attorney and long-time advisor Ralph S. Tyler to be the state’s insurance commissioner responsible for overseeing the regulation of Maryland’s $26...
Circuit Court Ruling Strikes Down Illinois’ Medical Liability Reform Law
Nov 14 2007 // A Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court ruling yesterday that strikes down the state’s 2005 medical liability reform law by calling the caps on non-economic damages for medical malpractice lawsuits unconstitutional is...
Conn. Trial Lawyers Say Medical Liability Insurer is Overcharging Doctors
Nov 9 2007 // The Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association charged today that one of the state’s medical liability insurers has been charging doctors excessive premiums. The lawyers association released a new actuarial analysis that...
Malpractice Payouts Down in Tennessee in 2006
Nov 5 2007 // The amount paid in medical malpractice lawsuits in Tennessee was down last year from 2005, according to a new state report. Tennessee trial courts issued six medical malpractice judgments totaling $4.9 million during 2006,...
Medical liability loss ratios on the decline in South Central states
Nov 4 2007 // Loss ratios in the medical liability line of insurance generally have been declining nationally for the past few years, and the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas have not bucked that trend,...
