Comments on: The Namby Pamby is exasperated

By: William Nuesslein

William Nuesslein — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:34:48 +0000

About the comment of VMS.

Why would leaving a patient to the care of interns be an emotion-driving malpractice instead of post hoc ergo proctor hoc? Is that doctor the one who can guarantee survival?

By: VMS

VMS — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:35:59 +0000

The “medmal panel” was tried in New York, and for some reason it was abandoned in favor of the attorney certifying that he consulted with a physician who said the case was meritorious.

I disapprove of the jury consisting entirely of physicians (see why?). But having a jury of thinking people who can actually listen to, weigh and evaluate a case would be nice.

Alternatively, the judges in the medmal parts seem to have a good handle on what cases are legit and which ones are not and the value of the injuries. But the Constitutions of the several states parallel that pesky Seventh Amendment (trial by jury), so a group of ignorants that are too stupid to get out of jury duty turn the system into a crap shoot.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:31:56 +0000

Caps are a crude instrument, but they are better than nothing. Agreed they restrain many minor injuries at the expense of a few major injuries. The caps generally only limit “pain and suffering” which is the most abused type of damages.

Much better would be to replace paid experts (“whores” to some) with a panel of neutral doctors who would weed out friv cases. Or a jury of randomly selected doctors who can properly judge a medical case.

By: Bill Alexander

Bill Alexander — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:19:16 +0000

How about a panel of doctors that can sue an attorney for malpractice in a court with a judge who is also a doctor?

By: VMS

VMS — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:56:57 +0000

That’s at the frivolous end of the spectrum. On the other end are the physicians that leave during the middle of a surgery to pick up their relatives at the airport leaving the patient in the care of interns, and when they return, their patient is dead. And then you have everything in between.

Those who advocate across-the-board malpractice caps should have no problem granting physicans immunity from suit even for the most blatent malpractice. On the other hand, I’m sure that there exists an attorney somewhere, not the Namby Pamby, who would take that case to extort money from the doctor, and ruin his life and his practice if he didn’t fork over something. So what to do?

Many of the think tanks unfortunately see the only solution as caps on medmal lawsuits. Maybe they should be sued for incompetence.