Tial question?

[Stephanie/OR]

After reading Natalee's devestating post it occured to me that most of the postings that I have seen recently about trials have been of trials that were lost by the plantifs. Is this a trend or am I imagining this? Are people not posting about the victories...or are there that many families losing? Please post with your thoughts or better yet the good news that you won your trial or settled successfully. I think we could all use the morale boost.
With Sincerety,
Stephanie B.

[Bridget]

Stephanie,

I believe a great many of these cases settle favorably for the plaintiff prior to trial. I know of many quite wonderful settlements. The stats do show, however, that these cases are generally lost if they do go to trial, but of course there are quite amazing exceptions. I'm sure others will post with their experiences.

Bridget

[admin]

We received a settlement from the delivering doctor which wasn't much since he had the least legal amount of coverage.The insurance company denies paying for therapy after 62 days after she had the Mod Quad so thankfully we had this little bit to pay for therapy. The judge approved it yesterday. In the mean time we are scheduled to go to trial in October with my ob-gyn who induced me and left the hospital. The delivering doctor was his partner and on call.They have since went their separate ways because of this case as I've heard through the grapevine. We keep hearing of all the losses and I'm wandering if we have a better chance because the delivering doctor settled? Our attorney has set up a 2 week docket for trial because he says it will take at least a week for our side of the case alone. The closer it gets I don't know whether to be scared or confident. I've heard that sometimes juries don't make proper judgements because all the medical stuff is too much for most lay people to understand. Dr. Robert Allen who wrote the book per say on shoulder dystocia is one of our experts. I just keep praying! This has taken over the last 5 years of our lives and after the trial as someone else posted I'll still be caring for Michaela,taking her to rehab, fighting insurance companies for rehab, and taking care of things with her attorneys(2), but those thoughts don't make it any less scary. LeeAnne

[admin]

It is a fact that more cases are being lost now than in the past. And more doctors/insurance companies are choosing to go to trial rather than settle. They have recognized their vulnerability and are getting together a tough defense in reponse to a rash of hefty settlements and high jury verdicts. This will probably only get worse as time goes on because BP families have put out their best cases, their best evidence and physicians are now coming up with new defenses which juries are accepting. This is only my personal observation. Any attorneys out there who care to give your opinion?

[admin]

It doesn't matter if you are confident or scared during your trial. The jury just comes back with whatever they feel like. They can attach to just one little thing in testimony and base their verdict on that. Or they might just like the way the doctor looks more than they like the way you look. It's all a crap shoot once you get to trial. If you lose, will you believe it's because the doctor was right? Of course not. And if you win, will the doctor believe you were right? Of course not. Educating the medical profession about this injury is the number one thing we can do to prevent it. This is not going to happen in a courtroom. There's too much anger in a courtroom.

[LeeAnne]

Sorry, my above post came up under guest,null. I wasn't logged in. LeeAnne

[Kwest]

We settled our case. I'm confident that was the best decision we could have made. Yes, we may have received a higher dollar figure going to trial but that chance was slim. More likely, we would have lost or been awarded less (we live in a conservative community where juries traditionally favor Doctors).

However, that being said. The best advice I can give is to find an attorney that knows his/her BPI stuff. Ultimately, they will help you wade through the many decisions that will need to be made including to settle or not settle. I trusted my attorney and although, he never swayed us to settle or to go to trial, he did provide me with the facts and information to make an informed decision. After we made our decision, he said he felt we had made the right one.

One more thing -- the thing I wrestled with the most was "how much is enough." The fact is, no amount will ever make up for the limits placed on my daughter. Sure, settlements in the millions of dollars sound great but for many of us that is simply unrealistic. Plus, I think many of us would be astounded at what a percentage of a million will become when placed into a structured account for 15-20 years. (I know I was!)

[Bridget]

I am replying to the "Guest" poster...

I disagree with you quite firmly on several counts.

You state: "It is a fact that more cases are being lost now than in the past."

What exactly do you mean by this and what proof do you have that your statement is true? Perhaps it all depends on your definition of what "losing a case" means. Does reaching a settlement constitute losing or winning? And for who? My understanding was that most of these cases settle. By my definition, that is a "win" for the families.

You state: "And more doctors/insurance companies are choosing to go to trial rather than settle." I'd love to see the source of your information for this, it is a topic that interests me.

You state: "This will probably only get worse as time goes on because BP families have put out their best cases, their best evidence and physicians are now coming up with new defenses which juries are accepting." I disagree with this perspective, I don't think juries are now accepting new physician defenses, I think juries are predisposed towards physicians no matter what the case or evidence, as they always have been. The so-called new defenses that you mention are a joke, in my opinion, and represent efforts of the medical community to protect their own in a court of law and have very little to do with actually medical practice. Please read the current article in Outreach regarding this type of "defense."


You state: "Educating the medical profession about this injury is the number one thing we can do to prevent it. This is not going to happen in a courtroom. There's too much anger in a courtroom." I absolutely disagree. The courtroom is currently the only forum in which the medical community will listen to our point of view at all. The medical community have proven to me, at least, that they have no interest in hearing from non medical professionals anything at all, especially anything with a hint of placing any amount of responsibility for this type of injury on their shoulders.

Just look at the current debate going on in our country today over rising insurance costs for ob/gyns...they blame this entirely on the fault of those who bring suits against them...and I am forced to ask, has every single one of these suits been a joke to them? Do they not accept one shred of responsibility? It saddens and sickens me to see such a total lack of honesty and sincere effort to accept responsibility of any kind for the current state of affairs by these physicians.

Take a look at the following story "Obstetricians Call for Liability Insurance Reform" which appeared recently in the Arizona Republic:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/reuters/s ... S-DC.shtml

All in all, I would say that the current outcry on the part of the ob/gyns reflect a "winning" trend on the part of the families, rather than the reverse.

Bridget

[Bridget]

Check out this link to vote.com and the issue of whether or not patients should have access to a physician's malpractice records...read some of the comments, very enlightening about how the medical profession views itself...

http://www.vote.com/vote/44609433/index ... ">VOTE.COM |Should
Physician Malpractice Records Be Available Online?