Monthly Archives: September 2010

September 30, 2010

How Medical Malpractice Claims Help Doctors Avoid Mistakes

Monday’s Wall Street Journal featured an article entitled “What the Doctor Missed: Using Malpractice Claims to Help Physicians Avoid Diagnostic Mistakes, Delays.” As the title suggests, medical malpractice claims are increasingly being studied by doctors and their medical malpractice insurers to avoid repeat mistakes. The knowledge that doctors gain by studying medical malpractice claims is [...]

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Posted in Medical Malpractice

September 28, 2010

Massachusetts Homeowners May Be Held Liable For Injuries Caused By Backyard Softball Game

Massachusetts homeowners may be liable for injuries to their guests caused by sports equipment that they provide other of their guests, according to a ruling issued by the Appeals Court last week. In Judge v. Carrai, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that a lawsuit can proceed against party host/homeowners for injuries that were sustained when [...]

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Posted in Personal Injury, Premises Liability

September 27, 2010

Link Roundup

“The Easy Case For Products Liability Law,” a Harvard Law Review article by Professors Goldberg and Zipursky, defending products liability law. Professor Alberto Bernabe reports on the $21 million verdict that a New Hampshire jury returned against a pharmaceutical company. The plaintiff in the case developed Stevens-Johnson Syndrome from her use of a generic nonsteroidal [...]

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Posted in Uncategorized

September 25, 2010

The Judge, Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform

A recent story out of Florida illustrates neatly what tort reform means for the victims of medical malpractice and should help most people figure out what side of the debate they come down on. Judge Nelson Bailey checked into a Florida hospital for a procedure to treat his diverticulitis. He checked out with a one [...]

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Posted in Medical Malpractice

September 25, 2010

Checklists and Other Medical Error Reforms

This month’s Reader’s Digest features an article entitled “Doctors Confess Their Fatal Mistakes,” which contains the stories of five haunting medical errors, only one of which resulted in any legal consequences for the practitioner (a pharmacist). From my perspective, the most interesting story involved Dr. Peter Pronovost, an outstanding Johns Hopkins physician and MacArthur “genius [...]

Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted in Medical Malpractice

September 20, 2010

Distracted Driving Car Accident Deaths Down In 2009

Today, the Transportation Department announced that the number of fatal car accidents caused by distracted driving declined in 2009. Nevertheless, the percentage of fatal car accidents caused by distracted driving remained steady at sixteen percent because the overall level of fatal accidents declined as well, to the lowest number since 1950.

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Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash

September 10, 2010

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Affirms $3.35 Million Jury Verdict For Boy Injured By Defective Escalator

Last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a $3.35 million jury verdict against Otis Elevator Company for an injury to a four-year old boy caused by a defective escalator that bore Otis Elevator’s name but that was in fact manufactured by an independent Chinese company, China Tianjin Otis Elevator Company, Ltd. (CTOEC). The case [...]

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Posted in Dangerous and Defective Products, Products Liability

September 10, 2010

Maybe Doctors Should Be More Like Medical Malpractice Lawyers And Work On An Outcome-Based Model

It’s a familiar back-and-forth: doctors demonizing medical malpractice lawyers claim that they are forced to practice “defensive medicine” because of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits; medical malpractice lawyers say that the unnecessary tests and procedures are really done because doctors make more money when they carry out more tests and procedures. This week the journal Health [...]

Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted in Medical Malpractice

September 5, 2010

Don’t Drive With A Divorced Doctor In A Pick-Up Truck On Super Bowl Sunday: Some Surprising Car Accident Statistics

My interest kindled by his blog, I’ve been reading Tom Vanderbilt’s book “Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us.” It’s a fascinating quasi-anthropological study of the role of the automobile in our everyday lives. The book touches on a number of subjects, from road rage to city planning. [...]

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Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash, Motorcycle Accidents

September 1, 2010

Students Who Take Driver’s Ed More Likely To Be Involved In A Car Accident Than Those Who Do Not Take Classes?

Lawmakers in Indiana are puzzled by a new study showing that students who take driver’s ed classes are four times more likely to be involved in a car accident than those who don’t take the classes and instead merely take the license exam. The study has led some lawmakers to propose that driver’s ed classes [...]

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Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash