Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

Justice Ginsburg's Fiduciary Loophole: A Viable Achilles' Heel To Hmos' Impenetrable Erisa Shield, Charlotte Johnson

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice Law, Kathleen M. Mccauley, Dana A. Dews

University of Richmond Law Review

With President George W. Bush's promise to continue working toward tort reform, medical malpractice issues are once again garnering media and voter attention. This article examines recent judicial decisions and statutory amendments affecting patients and health care providers in the commonwealth in the context of medical malpractice law.

Million Dollar Medical Malpractice Cases In Florida: Post-Verdict And Pre-Suit Settlements, Neil Vidmar, Kara Mackillop, Paul Lee

Vanderbilt Law Review

Beginning around the year 2000, the cost of medical liability insurance for doctors sharply increased, allegedly doubling in some specialties. As a result, medical malpractice litigation has once again occupied center stage in public debate about tort reform.' Large jury verdicts are cited by insurers, physicians, and defense attorneys as unwarranted and corruptive of the medical system because they set the bargaining rate around which plaintiff and defense lawyers negotiate settlements. One of the most commonly proposed remedies is a cap on the amount that can be awarded for general damages, often called "non-economic damages" or "pain and suffering," following …

Dishonest Medical Mistakes, Maxwell J. Mehlman

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the medical liability wars, physicians like to think that they are the ones in the trenches. Yet the true soldiers, of course, are the patients. As patients seek to avoid the barrage of malpractice reforms and the spoliation of managed care, one of their key refuges-the fiduciary duty of health care professionals-is being assailed from a number of directions. This Article describes these attacks and suggests how best to thwart them.

Imagine that you are seriously ill and go to a doctor. If you are like most patients these days, you are enrolled in some form of managed care. …

"Judicial Hellholes:" Medical Malpractice Claims, Verdicts And The "Doctor Exodus" In Illinois, Neil Vidmar, Russell M. Robinson Ii, Kara Mackillop

Vanderbilt Law Review

Beginning about the year 2000, physicians around the nation experienced an explosive jump in their professional medical liability insurance premiums. The state of Illinois has been identified as one of the "crisis" states by the American Medical Association ("AMA") insofar as cost and availability of liability insurance is concerned. Madison and St. Clair counties, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, have garnered particular attention, acquiring the label "judicial hellhole" for medical malpractice claims. The notoriety is so great that President Bush visited Madison County in January 2005 as part of his campaign for a nationwide $250,000 cap on …

Medical Malpractice Standard-Setting: Developing Malpractice "Safe Harbors" As A New Role For Qios?, James F. Blumstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Concern about medical malpractice issues has reemerged, again stemming from escalating costs in some geographic regions and sectors of medical practice. The Bush Administration has (so far unsuccessfully) supported a cap on noneconomic loss as a strategy for coping with the cost aspects of those medical malpractice concerns, the model being the California approach.

Although the overall initiative for reform has considerable merit, the damage-cap has its opponents and its drawbacks. The damage-cap approach is remedy-centric, focusing on the scope of remedy as a vehicle for containing costs in the area of medical malpractice. By concentrating on remedies, the reform …

Medical Malpractice Litigation And Tort Reform: It's The Incentives, Stupid, David A. Hyman, Charles Silver

Vanderbilt Law Review

Health care providers and tort reformers invariably claim that the medical malpractice litigation system is rife with behaviors that are irrational, unpredictable, and counter-productive. They attack civil juries, asserting that verdicts are skyrocketing without reason, are highly variable, and bear little or no relation to the merits of plaintiffs' claims. They complain about patients, arguing that the few with valid claims sue rarely, while the many who receive non- negligent treatment sue all the time. They attack greedy lawyers, alleging that they rake in obscene profits by routinely filing frivolous complaints. They complain that compensation flows almost randomly, winding up …

Rethinking Peer Review: Detecting And Addressing Medical Malpractice Claims Risk, Ilene N. Moore, James W. Pichert, Gerald B. Hickson, Charles Federspiel, Jennifer U. Blackford

Vanderbilt Law Review

A medical center department chair has just been notified that a physician in his department, "Dr. G," is being sued for the fifth time in seven years. The CEO of co-defendant hospital wants the chair to solve Dr. G's "claims problems." At the chair's request, the hospital peer review committee evaluates Dr. G's malpractice cases. While committee members note some minor concerns in the cases, they conclude that in each circumstance he has met the standard of care. They cannot identify any specific technical or educational need, nor can they supply justification for a disciplinary action. The chair is in …

Bridging The Relational-Regulatory Gap: A Pragmatic Information Policy For Patient Safety And Medical Malpractice, William M. Sage, Joshua G. Zivin, Nathaniel B. Chase

Vanderbilt Law Review

The medical malpractice crisis of the last few years has tapped a lot of scholarly energy. Time not spent on original research-adding to the store of knowledge about the medical malpractice system-is often spent communicating with policymakers and the public. These experiences have led us to think a lot about the amount and quality of information circulating within or concerning the medical malpractice system, and about public policy reforms that would improve information flow in the future.

No grand theory has emerged from this meditation. Instead, we have formed definite, though not immutable, opinions about a desirable information policy for …

Putting The Caps On Caps: Reconciling The Goal Of Medical Malpractice Reform With The Twin Objectives Of Tort Law, Kyle Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Medical malpractice litigation is not a modern invention. Rather, it has been part of the American legal system since before the Revolution,1 and the most recent medical malpractice insurance crisis is not the first this country has known. However, losses to insurers during the earlier medical malpractice insurance crises pale in comparison to the ailments of this most recent crisis.2 Though this most recent medical malpractice insurance crisis seems to be coming to a close,3 by examining the causes of this crisis and enacting changes at present, this country may be able to avoid future crises. Of course, the first …

An Extreme Response Or A Necessary Reform - Revealing How Caps On Noneconomic Damages Actually Affect Medical Malpractice Victims And Malpractice Insurance Rates, Kelly Kotur

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Irs Advises No Medical Expense Deduction For Sexual Reassignment Surgery, Katie D. Fletcher

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

While Federal Lawmakers Try, States Fill Elder Justice Gaps, Daniel Koen

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

All Kids: As Illinois Becomes The First In The Nation To Offer Universal Healthcare For Children, Some Express Concern That The State Has Made Promises It Can't Keep, Brendan Moore

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Affirms Oregon Physician Assisted Suicide Statute, Adam Braun

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bioshield 2: A Shot In The Right Direction?, Lindsay Frank

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Transsexuals And The Family Medical Leave Act, 24 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 315 (2006), Charles Thomas Little

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article examines the implications for transsexuals seeking sexual reassignment surgery (“SRS”) under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). Currently, the scant case law pertaining to the FMLA suggests that the statutes and regulations will likely fail to provide even minimal protection to transsexuals. If applied literally, the FMLA may present barriers to transsexuals seeking SRS in opposition to the true purpose behind the Act, which is to allow employees the opportunity to take reasonable leave from work by mandating more medical leave than the employers might otherwise be willing to grant for things such as the adoption or birth …

"For It's One, Two, Three Strikes, You're Out . . .", 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 493 (2006), Kaycee Hopwood

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blue Mourning: Postpartum Psychosis And The Criminal Insanity Defense, Waking To The Reality Of Women Who Kill Their Children, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 515 (2006), Jessica Butterfield

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

How We Die: A New Prescription, Martin Bienstock

Journal of Law and Health

The dawn of the twenty-first century brought with it a profound change in the way we experience death. Until the last decades of the twentieth century, our bodies died all at once: when the heart kidneys, lungs, or brain failed, the body's other organs failed with them. Modern medicine now allows us to die in pieces, with failing organs supported or supplanted by technology. Modern death is different not only biologically, but also sociologically. Until the twentieth century, death was a private event that took place in the home with the family. It offered one final opportunity for family members …

Critical Essay: Musings On The Need To Convince Some People With Disabilities That End-Of-Life Decision-Making Advocates Are Not Out To Get Them, Kathy L. Cerminara

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Terri Schiavo: Unsettling The Settled, Lois Shepherd

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

On Hastening Death Without Violating Legal And Moral Prohibitions, Norman L. Cantor

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Quinlan To Cruzan To Schiavo: What Have We Learned?, William H. Colby

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right To Die: The Broken Road From Quinlan To Schiavo, Annette E. Clark

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Shattered Vessel: The Dying Person In Jewish Law And Ethics, Philip J. Bentley

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.