-VISIT OUR OTHER FORUMS- OB-GYN-L Ultrasound Ultrasound History Fibroid Forum Physicians-in-Training Tech Talk OBSTET-L (portuguese) OBGIN-L (spanish) Nursing

Re: FRI Highest Malpractice Award in Michigan History -- REPLY From: Dean Huffman (jth@springnet1.com) Thu May 31 16:24:59 2001 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Braun, R. Daniel: "Re: LAVH - was: GYN: LSH vs. LAVH" Previous message: Griffiths Malcolm: "Re: 3d Ultrasound" Next in thread: art fougner, md: "Re: FRI Highest Malpractice Award in Michigan History -- REPLY" Reply: art fougner, md: "Re: FRI Highest Malpractice Award in Michigan History -- REPLY" .. There is a system in Michigan tort law called the high-low system. Under the system, litigants can agree on a high and a low for monetary damages. Whether or not this is a good system, it at least provides for some general protection for each party. (Protection, I suspect, especially for plaintiff's attorney.) The plaintiff and defendant might agree before trial that they will accept the jury award, but if the jury award exceeds their limits, the limits will hold. For example, they might agree that in no case will the award be less than, say 100,000 nor more than, say, 1,500,000, irrespective of what the jury does. If such a system were in place for this case, then the actual payment might be considerably less than what the jury awarded. In any event, this case will probably be appealed and reduced, either by the appellate court, or by an agreement between the parties to the case. Parties, again especially the plaintiff's attorney, are often willing to settle for a predetermined amount rather than risk what the jury, or the appeals court, will do. I do not know who the parties to the suit are. If the physician is the only defendant, it is unlikely that the award would ever be paid, even if upheld on appeal. He (she) probably does not have that much money or insurance. In all probability the case will be reduced on appeal, settled post judgement and pre appeal, or end up in bankruptcy court. - - - - At 01:26 PM 5/31/01 -0500, you wrote: >to whit i simply suggest - > >Look for >The Union Label. > >art > >At Thu, 31 May 2001, Harrison Sheld wrote: > > > >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; > x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" > >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > >Yes. Well the juries like to send messages with these 8 figure awards. > In this > >case, I am not sure if the message they thought they sent is the message we > >received. The message from the award, and all such exorbitant awards is: > Only a > >darn fool practices obstetrics these days. What with increasing government > >generated paperwork and their regulations, increasing malpractice insurance > >premiums (here in Nevada the State Insurance Commission just approved > increases > >in premiums of 100%, 90% and 35% for the three largest carriers), increasing > >malpractice awards, and decreasing managed care reimbursements, the only > >accoucheurs that will be left are paupers with a terminal disease. > > > >DoctorJoe@aol.com wrote: > > > >> In a message dated 5/30/01 6:12:34 PM, marilyncnm@hotmail.com writes: > >> > >> << In what is believed to be the largest medical malpractice verdict in > >> Michigan history, Washtenaw County last week awarded Dawn Goll with $23 > >> million for the "inexplicable" absence of her obstetrician during the > birth > >> of her fourth child, who has brain damage due to complications during > labor, > >> the Detroit News reports. Goll had arranged for obstetrician Lawrence > >> Schrock to "personally oversee" the birth of the child, Sierra, to help > >> prevent complications that caused her third child to be born with mild > brain > >> damage. However, Schrock missed the birth, and Sierra also suffered > >> permanent brain damage. >> > >> > >> Okay... now we need to come up with a tight, concise (is that redundant?) > >> definition of a new medical-malpractice-obstetrical term: "SCHROCKed". I'm > >> just not sure if we should make it "condition of a doctor who gets > sued for > >> missing delivery" or "damage to a baby due to lack of birth attendant" or > >> "giving lots of money in a case with genetic damage and blaming it on > someone > >> else" or what... Any ideas? > >> > >> Joe P. > >-- >art fougner, md > >A series of 1000 cases begins with but a single anecdote. Next message: Braun, R. Daniel: "Re: LAVH - was: GYN: LSH vs. LAVH" Previous message: Griffiths Malcolm: "Re: 3d Ultrasound" Next in thread: art fougner, md: "Re: FRI Highest Malpractice Award in Michigan History -- REPLY" Reply: art fougner, md: "Re: FRI Highest Malpractice Award in Michigan History -- REPLY"

Return to

Mail a New Message to the Forum: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net Forum Administrator: geffrey.klein@obgyn.net Report Technical Problems: webmaster@obgyn.net Last Updated: Mon Nov 2 04:48:35 2009

The American Medical Association is no longer designating CME hours for AMA Category II CME credit. However, physicians themselves may self designate learning activities as Category II CME credit hours if they feel it is of sufficient educational merit and meets the formal definitions of continuing medical education. OBGYN.net believes these interaction in this forum meets these criteria. For further information see the AMA web site.