Litigation Commons^™

Newsroom: Logan Quoted In Bloomberg News On Opiod Litigation 08-16-2017, Jef Feeley, Jared S. Hopkins

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Canada’S First Malpractice Crisis: Medical Negligence In The Late Nineteenth Century, R. Blake Brown

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article describes and explains the first Canadian medical malpractice crisis. While malpractice had emerged as a prominent legal issue in the United States by the mid nineteenth century, Canadian doctors first began to express concerns with a growth in malpractice litigation in the late nineteenth century. Physicians claimed that lawsuits damaged reputations and forced them to spend lavishly on defending themselves. Doctors blamed lawyers for drumming up spurious lawsuits and argued that ignorant or malicious jurors tended to side with plaintiffs. Evidence, however, points to additional factors that contributed to litigation. Medical professionals in rural areas sometimes avoided lengthy …

The Recent Enactment Of National Mandatory Gmo Labeling Law: Superior To A Voluntary Labeling Scheme But Unlikely To End The Labeling Controversy, Nan Feng

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Note provides background information about the major controversies related to GM foods, including the debate about whether such foods should be labeled, and the history of GMO labeling laws in the United States. Part II compares S. 764 with H.R. 1599 and explains why a national mandatory labeling approach is superior to the voluntary labeling approach advocated by the House. Part III discusses the potential drawbacks and effect of S. 764 and finally concludes that the rulemaking process that will follow may create controversies and litigation.

Trouble On The Exchanges — Does The United Owe Billions To Health Insurers?, Nicholas Bagley

Articles

Yet another bruising fight has erupted over health care reform. On September 9, 2016, the Obama administration offered to open settlement negotiations with health insurers that have sued the United States to recover billions of dollars that they claim they are owed. Congressional Republicans are incensed, believing that any settlement would illegally squander taxpayer dollars in a lastgasp effort to save the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Ebola, Experimental Medicine, Economics, And Ethics: An Evaluation Of International Disease Outbreak Law, Sara L. Dominey

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Neuroimaging Evidence: A Solution To The Problem Of Proving Pain And Suffering?, Brady Somers

Seattle University Law Review

Envision a plaintiff who was injured on the job at a construction site due to his employer’s negligence. The plaintiff has chronic back pain, but it is not verifiable on an X-ray, nor is a physical injury readily discernible by any other technology. Presently, fact finders are given the broad discretion to decide whether they find this plaintiff credible, and accordingly, whether they believe he is truly in pain and deserves damages for pain and suffering. However, neuroimaging—specifically functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—could allow those fact finders to visualize whether this plaintiff was hurting by depicting the unique signatures that …

Is Meaningful Peer Review Headed Back To Florida?, Brendan A. Sorg

Akron Law Review

This comment lays the foundation to evaluate the sustainability of Amendment 7 post-PSQIA in Part II by first examining medical peer review, its origin, its evolution and why peer review remains important to patient safety. Although many physicians dislike peer review, Congress has acknowledged its importance by making peer review mandatory and by providing the statutory protections to ensure peer review remains meaningful.7 States have followed suit, passing their own laws that provide for the protection of peer review materials. Part II also addresses how Amendment 7 reversed Florida’s historical approach providing broad peer review protection and how this erosion …

Can Shared Decision-Making Reduce Medical Malpractice Litigation? A Systematic Review, Marie-Anne Durand, Benjamin Moulton, Elizabeth Cockle, Mala Mann, Glyn Elwyn

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: To explore the likely influence and impact of shared decision-making on medical malpractice litigation and patients’ intentions to initiate litigation.

Methods: We included all observational, interventional and qualitative studies published in all languages, which assessed the effect or likely influence of shared decision-making or shared decision-making interventions on medical malpractice litigation or on patients ’ intentions to litigate. The following databases were searched from inception until January 2014: CINAHL, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Da tabase of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, HMIC, Lexis library, MEDLINE, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Open SIGLE, PsycINFO and Web of Knowledge. We also hand …

Navigating The Law Of Defense Counsel Ex Parte Interviews Of Treating Physicians, Joseph Regalia, V. Andrew Cass

Scholarly Works

This article explores the issue of defense counsel ex parte interviews with treating physicians, and proposes a resolution to standardize the practice that is equitable for all parties involved. Courts and legal scholars have commonly recognized that treating physicians in personal injury litigation are usually fact witnesses, albeit with special expertise, and allow plaintiffs unfettered access while defendants are relegated to a formal deposition which creates a fundamental imbalance in informational power. Moreover, there are significant arguments raised by the defense bar concerning efficiency and fairness. However, allowing defense counsel unlimited and unregulated access to treating physicians creates clear risks …

Remodeling Federal Medical Malpractice Act: A Possible Improvement To The Affordable Care Act, Nancy Kubasek, Tiffany Durham

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

During the debates about healthcare reform, the Congressional Budget Office found that federal medical liability reform could drastically reduce federal budget deficits, yet political and legal scholars could not reach agreement about the best way for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to provide such reform. Instead, provisions were made to fund state level demonstration projects. The law that is considered one of the most successful models to date of conventional tort reform is the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of California. This Article exams that legislation and discusses how we might use what can be learned from …

"Mad Plaintiff Disease?" Tobacco Litigation And The British Debate Over Adoption Of U.S.-Style Tort Litigation Methods, Kristen Gartman Rogers

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Litigation In The Fight Against Prescription Drug Abuse, Richard C. Ausness

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Affordable Care Act, Remedy, And Litigation Reform, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“ACA”) rewrote the law of private health insurance. How the ACA rewrote the law of civil remedies, however, is — to date — a question largely unexamined by scholars. Courts everywhere, including the United States Supreme Court, will soon confront this important issue.

This Article offers a foundational treatment of the ACA on remedy. It predicts a series of flashpoints over which litigation reform battles will be fought. It identifies several themes that will animate those conflicts and trigger others. It explains how judicial construction of the statute’s functional predecessor, the …

Uncovering The Silent Victims Of The American Medical Liability System, Joanna Shepherd

Faculty Articles

A frequently overlooked problem with the current medical liability system is the vast number of medical errors that go uncompensated. Although studies indicate that 1% of hospital patients are victims of medical negligence, fewer than 2% of these injured patients file claims. In this Article, I explain that many victims of medical malpractice do not file claims because they are unable to find attorneys willing to take their cases.

I conducted the first national survey of attorneys to explore medical malpractice victims' access to the civil justice system. The results from the survey indicate that the economic reality of litigation …

All His Sexless Patients: Persons With Mental Disabilities And The Competence To Have Sex, Michael L. Perlin, Alison Lynch

Articles & Chapters

With the growth in the field of mental disability law over the past 50 years, very few topics involving persons with mental illness remain taboo or off limits to scholars and judges who face these issues daily. However, discussions of the question of whether persons with mental disabilities have a right to voluntary sexual interaction often touches a raw nerve in conversations about mental disability law, even with those who are practicing in the field, and the discomfort people feel in examining this topic is exacerbated when discussing individuals who are institutionalized.

Although this often appears to be a difficult …

California And Uncle Sam's Tug-Of-War Over Mary Jane Is Really Harshing The Mellow, Daniel Mortensen

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Liability Cure-All For Insidious Disease Claims, Susan Frankewich

Pepperdine Law Review

Recent decisions handed down in various circuits have created virtual chaos in predicting the liability and damage amounts of insidious disease claims. At least three substantially divergent theories have been adopted to impute liability to the manufacturers of the disease catalysts. Additionally, a new trust fund concept has been used on a limited basis to reconcile differences in court decisions. The trust fund approach is relatively flexible and simple to apply in apportioning damages for insidious disease claims. The author examines and analyzes these three liability theories. In conclusion, the adoption of the trust fund concept is recommended.

Christopher V. Smithkline Beecham Corporation: An Unsurprising Loss For Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives And An Erosion Of Power For Administrative Agencies, Anna Johnston

Proxy

No abstract provided.

Sacrificial Lambs: Compensating First Subscribers To Fda-Approved Medications For Postmarketing Injuries Resulting From Unlabeled Adverse Events, Rodney K. Miller

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vaccines And The Law, Michael Sanzo Ph.D.

Pepperdine Law Review

The last twenty years have seen a sea-change in the area of proving causation in the toxic tort setting, with courts demanding stronger, scientifically tested evidence. At the same time, a closely related debate has been raging about separating cause from coincidence under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act compensation program for injuries that might have been the result of vaccinations. The Vaccine Act created a no-fault compensation fund financed by a tax on childhood vaccines to address harms resulting from those vaccines. Unfortunately, Congress gave little direction with regard to the level of causal certainty that would be required …

Medtronic, Inc. V. Lohr: Is Federal Pre-Emption A Heartbeat Away From Death Under The Medical Device Amendments?, Mark E. Gelsinger

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fda Sends Smoke Signals To Big Tobacco: Will The Fda Suffer Backlash, Will Alcohol Be Regulated Next, And Will The Health Of Americans Prevail?, Angela Turriciano

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Brushing Off Lawsuits: Dental Peer Review Examined , Lisa C. Markarian

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

For all contractual and legal intents and purposes, a dentist is a provider of services, while the patient who consents to treatment is a consumer. A dentist's fees reflect, in part, the cost of malpractice insurance protection. Dentists can also calculate into their fees any refunds they may pay back to patients who suffer adverse results.8 An injured patient on the other hand has limited means of protection against damages resulting from the wrongful acts of dentists. The options open to patients include: (1) filing a complaint in civil court, (2) reporting the incident to a government agency such as …

Mediation In The Health Care System: Creative Problem Solving , Sheea Sybblis

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Part I of this paper provides a comparison of the use of litigation and mediation in the health care context. Part II explores how mediation can be used to improve many of the often criticized aspects of adjudication systems and alleviate tension between parties in health care disputes. Part III provides an evaluation of current mediation programs and studies in health care, as well as the expanding role of mediators. Part IV incorporates assessments of the potential success of mediation to resolve health care disputes in the future and provides suggestions to strengthen the process.

The Clinton-Obama Approach To Medical Malpractice Reform: Reviving The Most Meaningful Features Of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Grant Wood Geckeler

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

An introduction to medical malpractice reform would be incomplete without mentioning the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 1999 report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, which lists medical errors as the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. While much attention premiums, the media's recent interest in the application of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) tactics in medical malpractice cases has increased. The quest for a one-size-fits-all fix to rising health care costs has turned to ADR for guidance in the past, with hopes that binding arbitration and voluntary mediation would resolve the crisis. Recently, the …

Gambling On Goldilocks: Illinois Medical Malpractice Damage Caps And The Quest For "Just Right" Reform, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 917 (2012), Kristen Zaharski

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Women's Health Amendment And Religious Freedom: Finding A Sufficient Compromise, Rebecca Hall

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice: The Italian Experience, Claudia Dimarzo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Beginning with an investigation into the problematic nature of medical liability, the Article overviews the most significant approaches taken by courts and scholars in order to establish whether the physician's position before the patient is comparable with that of either a tortfeasor or a contractor.

Having explained that the most recent approaches in this regard tend toward the recognition of the contractual nature of medical liability, the Author discusses the implications of such a solution, making specific reference to the following issues: 1) the assignment of the burden of proof (along with the distinction between obligations of means and obligations …

The Law Of Medical Misadventure In Japan, Robert B. Leflar

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of Japanese law and practice relating to iatrogenic (medically-caused) injury, with comparisons to other nations' medical law systems. The paper addresses criminal sanctions for Japanese physicians' negligent and illegal acts; civil law principles of substantive law and related issues of procedure, practice, and liability insurance; and administrative measures including health ministry programs aimed at expanding and improving the quality of peer review within Japanese medicine, and a recently implemented no-fault compensation system for birth-related injuries.

Among the paper's findings are these. Criminal and civil actions increased rapidly after highly publicized medical error events at …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In The Uk, Richard Goldberg

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the first part of this paper, Dr. Goldberg examines the context in which medical malpractice liability is operating in the UK. The fact that the state-run National Health Service (NHS) is the major healthcare provider in the UK has several implications, since funding for medical malpractice compensation in the NHS comes from the taxpayer. The most recent empirical evidence on the incidence and funding of claims in England and Scotland is assessed, to show a trend of expenditure on clinical negligence increasing, particularly in England. This is followed by an examination of the statutory framework for the empowerment of …