How to Start a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in New York

Ever wonder how exactly a medical malpractice case gets started in New York? Reading this article will take you through the different steps an attorney needs to evaluate once you walk into their office. Take a look.

You've Got to Read This- Jury Duty Causes Disbarment of Calif. Lawyer

The Recorder

Mike McKee

March 11, 2009

Changing his vote during jury duty so he could get back to his busy law practice has come at a high price for San Francisco solo Francis Fahy and possibly placed him into a category unique unto itself. 

A California State Bar Court review panel on Friday upheld disbarment (.pdf) for the 19-year lawyer after finding he violated his oath as a juror and then compounded the problem by lying to the trial court judge when confronted.

Read the entire article here. 

The Dental Appliance that Sues the Dentist

Have you ever seen a medical appliance that will sue the doctor that puts it on?
Well, here it is...
Take a look at the 'self-litigating' set of braces in this article. Through a goof in the ad, the text would appear as if the patient can automatically bring a lawsuit for putting these on.

I got a good laugh from this typo. 

NY Medical Malpractice -Does Obnoxious Doctor or Small Injury=Compensation For Victim?

1. A physician's poor bedside manner does not constitute negligence.

In the vast majority of cases, even extremely poor bedside manner cannot be considered in determining whether a physician was legally negligent in providing treatment. We have reviewed many cases where arrogant doctors provided care and the patient was injured. It just doesn't matter legally that the doctor was a jerk. We must prove, with expert medical opinion that the treatment departed from good and accepted medical care; that such care was a substantial factor in causing injury and that the injury is significant and permanent. Bedside manners are not, in and of itself, part of the formula that a jury will use to establish responsibility. 

2. The patient suffered no significant damages.

If the victim suffered minor injuries, the legal system is not set up to handle small medical malpractice cases. We decline hundreds of cases a year where it appears that the doctor was careless but the resulting injury was not significant. A pharmacist may incorrectly fill your prescription, and you might get sick for a few days. If you have a good recovery, however, you probably don't have the basis for a case. That's because the costs of pursuing the case will be greater than the expected recovery. Our Court system may not be perfect, but it does act as a filter to keep out all but the most serious cases of medical malpractice.

Neurosurgery Delay Results in Pre-trial Settlement

A woman who had spinal surgery was sent home shortly after undergoing successful spine surgery.

Two days later, she was unable to move her legs and had difficulty urinating. A call to the surgeon's office revealed that the surgeon was unavailable, and he would get back to the family shortly. A repeat phone call to the doctor's office resulted in being told to wait for an available hospital bed, and that they would be called as soon as a bed opened up.

The family decided they could not wait at home as the patient's symptoms were getting progressively worse. The doctor's office had told them to go directly to the admitting office where they would wait until a bed was available. Unfortunately, this patient waited about five hours in the admitting office for a bed. During this time, she was never examined or treated by any physician.

Once the patient was admitted to the hospital, the wrong diagnostic imaging test was performed. The imaging test turned out to be inconclusive, and it wasn't until a full day later that the "gold standard" imaging test was done. This conclusively showed there was a fluid collection in the area of her prior surgery that was compressing her spine.  

The reason she had neurological symptoms was because the buildup of fluid compressed the spine. In spite of these findings, surgery was not performed immediately to remove the fluid and relieve the pressure on the spine. It was not until many hours later when surgery was finally performed and the fluid evacuated.

The patient required hospitalization and then a transfer to a rehabilitation facility. She had difficulty walking and ambulating. After a few weeks in physical rehab, she was finally sent home to recuperate.

Shortly before we were scheduled to begin jury selection on this case, all sides were able to reach a mutually agreeable pre-trial settlement. Because the terms of the settlement require confidentiality, I am unable to disclose the amount of the settlement, the people involved or where within New York this took place. 

Surgical Errors in New York

A surgical error can range from an improper procedure to an unrecognized perforation in an intestine leading to injury and death. How do you know whether a surgical error rises to the level of a departure from good and accepted practice? By having either a treating physician tell you that the treatment was improper, or having a medical expert confirm that there was improper medical care.

In New York, before an attorney is permitted to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of an injured victim, he must have the case reviewed by a medical expert who is qualified in that field of medicine. The expert must be able to confirm that there was improper medical care; that the improper treatment caused harm, and that the harm is significant and permanent.

If any one of those elements is missing, then it will be difficult, if not impossible to bring a successful case. If the expert confirms there is a valid case, then your attorney must submit a "Certificate of Merit" which lets the Court know that you have had an expert review and confirm there is a basis for a case.

If you have questions about the care and treatment you received, and believe there was wrongdoing that cause you permanent harm, then call Gerry today to answer your legal questions at 516-487-8207. He welcomes your call. 

In Case of Death-NY Trial Lawyer Gerry Oginski Publishes New Book

In this new book you’ll learn learn how a wrongful death lawsuit in New York works. You'll learn how much time you have to file a lawsuit for wrongful death, how much time you have to file a claim against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and the City of New York. Learn how to choose a wrongful death lawyer in NY. Find out whether you need an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Learn 9 Facts Your New York Wrongful Death Attorney May Not Tell You, and much much more. I guarantee that after reading this book, you will learn things you did not know before. I promise that this book will educate and inform you. That’s my guarantee.

Enjoy the book and if you have questions, please pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207. I welcome your call. Or you can send me your questions by email to lawmed10@yahoo.com. I can answer your legal questions, and I promise to give you a straightforward and personal response.

Man dies after 10 calls to 911

Ambulance personnel in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania failed to show up despite ten 911 calls for emergency medical assistance.

Ambulance Chasing

How many times have we heard the term ambulance chasing and thought of lawyers who were unscrupulous and had no ethics?

Just yesterday I critiqued an attorney video where a lawyer was seeking accident victims while shooting her video in an operating room. What made the video even more unusual is that there appeared to be a real patient on the operating room table, a physician operating, and a nurse attending to the patient. Unlike a video that depicts a hospital in the background, this medical malpractice attorney was clearly and visibly located within the operating room itself. Whether the people in the operating room were actors or not I could not tell.

However, this brief video did nothing to educate an injured victim who was searching for an attorney online. It is this type of advertising that gave rise to the term of ambulance chaser for negligence and medical malpractice attorneys years ago. Typically, lawyers had a very limited means in which to educate consumers about which lawyer was the right one for them. Traditional forms of advertising consisted of television advertisements lasting no more than 30 seconds, and a Yellow Pages ad that contained very little useful information.

Comedians routinely spoofed lawyer advertisements and movies portrayed negligence lawyers hanging out in funeral homes, (The Verdict with Paul Newman), as being the only way they could find cases. Other lawyers were shown hanging out in emergency rooms seeking to sign up every available accident victim.

Although every spoof has a hint of truth to it, it is highly unusual for attorneys nowadays to be found lurking in hospital emergency rooms or chasing ambulances to track down injured victims. 

The other day while in court I ran into a defense attorney I worked with on a number of cases. He was on my mailing list to receive my monthly newsletter. I hadn't seen him in a few years, but the first thing he said to me when we saw each other was "I still get your newsletter." The comment he made after that prompted me to write this blog post. He said, "Your newsletter appears to be a bit of ambulance chasing, doesn't it?" I asked him what he meant by that.

He said, "I recognize that attorneys have to have their shtick as a way of getting potential clients." I replied that my newsletter was not only informative, but helped educate potential clients, friends, colleagues and injured victims about how the legal process works. Importantly, I told him that there are people who have not received my newsletter on time who call me up wanting to know why their newsletters are late because they enjoy it so much.

Contained within my informative newsletter I have a trivia game, interesting news items, one or two stories about law, and in many cases an ongoing story called "Gerry's Never Ending (fictional) Story."  When I returned back to my office later that day, I removed this defense attorney from my mailing list recognizing that he truly didn't understand the purpose of the newsletter. Clearly, I never want to send my newsletter to someone who doesn't want it. I will tell you that in all the years I've publish my newsletter, this is only the second person I've removed my mailing list.

Twtitter & Facebook Comments-Can They Be Used Against You in a New York Negligence Trial?

You've brought a lawsuit in New York for injuries you received in a car accident. You've just given a deposition (a question and answer session) under oath where you explained in detail how your injuries prevent you from playing sports and doing many of your life's daily activities.

A few weeks later you are on Facebook telling your friends how you just went skiing and had no problem speeding down the double diamond slopes on an amazing mountain. While on Twitter, you posted a few quick comments about how you spend your day working part-time for a carpenter as a helper carrying heavy items in and out of the job site.

A bright defense attorney decides to check out your Facebook profile while he prepares his report to the insurance company. He also does a Google search of you to see where your name pops up. He finds your Facebook comment about your skiing adventure as well as your Twitter posts saying that you're working part-time.

What does this mean for your lawsuit in New York? 

The short version is that you're in trouble. The longer version is that you have created contradictions between the injuries that you claim to have suffered versus information that you have put out for public consumption on at least two social network sites.

Many people using Facebook and Twitter fail to recognize that by using and posting on these sites they generally have no expectation of privacy. It's not like having a private face-to-face conversation with one person. When you post to Facebook and Twitter, you are talking to the world. 

Will a trial judge allow a defense attorney to cross-examine you with the statements that you made on Facebook? Will your contradictions show that you were less than truthful under oath? In my opinion, a trial judge in New York will allow this information in.

What do you think will happen to your credibility once you are portrayed to have lied? A jury will no longer believe what you have to say. I'm not even going into the possibility of fraud or an intention to lie.

So what's the take home message? Remember, that when you post comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, the entire world can see them. Contradict yourself at your own peril.

Great Neck Firefighter Saves Cardiac Arrest Victim in Fort Myers, Florida

July 4, 2009

At 7 PM on July 4, in Fort Myers airport, Florida my family and I were walking toward the boarding gate of our JetBlue flight 138 heading back home to New York. As we approached the boarding gate, we saw a gate attendant kneeling on the floor next to an elderly man who was clearly unresponsive. The gate attendant had his finger on the man’s carotid artery, checking for a pulse. My son immediately dropped his laptop ran over to the man on the floor, announced that he was a first responder and a firefighter and also checked for a pulse. Having found no pulse and that he was not breathing, my son directed that they immediately begin CPR and advised the gate attendant to begin chest compressions.

A few moments later, a Port Authority policeman arrived and my son requested a mask to ventilate his lungs.

Together, the gate attendant and my son worked as a team to perform CPR on this cardiac arrest victim. If you’ve ever performed CPR it is physically taxing. Your adrenaline is pumping and you’re focused on reviving the patient. 

Chest compressions and ventilation continued for minutes until the pilot of our plane and another Port Authority police officer arrived with an automatic external defibrillator. Two large electrodes strips were placed on this man’s body and the defibrilator was activated.

If you’ve never seen an automatic defibrillator in action, it’s fascinating to watch and to hear. It announces that it is evaluating the patient’s heart rate and once it has finished assessing heart rate, it immediately recommends action and whether or not to shock the patient in an attempt to restore the normal heart rhythm.

After the first assessment was made by the automatic defibrilator, it recommended that the patient be shocked immediately. Once you press the button to administer the shock, the automatic defibrilator advises that everyone should stand back away from the patient. If you’ve ever seen someone shocked using defibrillator paddles on TV, it is the same as watching it in real life. A tremendous jolt of electricity is sent throughout the patient’s body to try and restore the heart rhythm or to get the heart rhythm reverted back to normal.

In this case, after the shock had been administered, my son and the gate attendant continued CPR until the automatic defibrilator advised to momentarily stop so it could check for a heart rate. At this point, there was still no heart rate or respirations. The defibrillator again recommended shocking the patient, and after the patient was shocked for the second time, the patient regained a pulse and respirations. My son together with an EMS attendant and the gate attendant turned the patient onto his side in order to prevent him from inhaling any fluids into his lungs (known as aspiration), now that he was breathing again. 

By this time, two other emergency medical crews arrived and took over where my son had left off.

My son is 17 years old and is a volunteer firefighter with the Vigilant Fire Department here in Great Neck. Watching my son take control of this medical emergency  and selflessly run to help this man in distress gave me the greatest feeling I could ever have as a parent. All of his training with the fire department effortlessly kicked into gear and I’m proud to say that my son helped save a life on July 4, 2009, Independence Day.

On the plane ride home to New York, my son told me this was his 15th time performing CPR. Looking at him, I could see the sparkle in his eye knowing that he did something good for someone else. Even though we were unaware of this man’s fate, I couldn’t help but think what a great person my son turned out to be.