Stockton Injury Lawyer Blog

On Tuesday, a California jury issued its verdict in favor of the victim in a horrible case of medical negligence. In Morad v. Tourah, the physician, Dr. Tourah erroneously performed a routine gallbladder operation on a Medi-Cal recipient. However, after discovering his errors, rather than treating the patient himself, the board certified surgeon drove the patient to USC County Hospital and dropped her off in front of the ER. The jury awarded the patient $395,000.

Sadly, many cases of medical negligence in the Stockton area and throughout California occur in the ER. As reported by the Institute of Medicine, the hospital location with the highest proportion of negligent medical events is the emergency room - with 52.6% of all hospital negligence http://www.centerjd.org.ER_victims.pdf Many times, the emergency rooms are already crowded due in part to the fact that the uninsured often choose the ER as the place to go for general health care. However, when negligence occurs, many are left without real recourse as a result of California's severe caps on damages.

Continue reading "California Medical Malpractice Verdict For Woman Dropped Off At ER" »

As President Obama strives to implement health care reform - "tort reform" has become a hot button issue. "Tort reform" typically refers to caps on non-economic punitive damages in lawsuits where individuals have been injured by gross medical malpractice. Tort reform advocates erroneously blame medical malpractice lawsuits for high insurance premiums, causing doctors to flee states without caps and practice "defensive medicine," further increasing health care costs.

However, as medical malpractice victims living in Marin County and throughout California know, the real cost of tort reform is born by those who been seriously injured or harmed by medical negligence. California currently has one of the nation's most restrictive tort reform laws with its 34 year old "cap" of $250,000 on pain and suffering for injured patients, which essentially prevents victim of severe cases of malpractice from going forward in the courts and receiving just compensation.

Further, studies show that many of the tort reformer's arguments are false and based on inaccurate information. According to a November report issued by the American Association for Justice, lawsuits do not drive up insurance premiums. In fact, studies show that jury awards, settlements and administrative costs add up to less than $10 billion a year - less than 0.3% of what the U.S. spends on health care every year.

The costs of defensive medicine are also greatly exaggerated. Recent studies show estimate that defensive medicine at most accounts for 3% of medical spending - and much of what is identified as defensive medicine is not motivated by liability, but simply the desire of physicians to generate more income.

Finally, little correlation exists between malpractice payouts and malpractice premiums. In fact, researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) noted, "increases in malpractice payments made on behalf of physicians do not seem to be the driving force behind increases in premiums." Declining interest rates and investments in the insurance industry drive the rate increases - not malpractice payouts. One study found that insurers artificially raised doctors' premiums and misled the public about the nature of medical negligence claims in order to justify "tort reform."

Continue reading "California Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Not Responsible For High Insurance Premiums" »