The Medical Malpractice Attorneys at CMG Law are regular contributors to Trial News, the monthly publication of the Washington State Association for Justice (WSAJ). These articles support all medical malpractice attorneys in Washington and their clients with useful information about litigating such claims.
In addition, Tyler Goldberg-Hoss, Gene Moen, and Carl-Erich Kruse have each served as chair or co-chair of the WSAJ Medical Negligence Section. And in 2016, Tyler served as editor of the first Medical Negligence Deskbook, published in 2016.
Focus groups, or Jury Research Projects, as David Ball calls them, are a useful tool in trying to figure out what potential jurors might think about your case or elements of it. However, there are times when the economics of a case don’t justify hiring a professional. In such situations, it may be useful to use a more cost-effective method for determining elusive juror attitudes, like running your own focus group. You can do it.
If you handle personal injury or medical negligence cases, you have probably encountered a condition called “compartment syndrome (CS).”
It’s a situation not uncommon in medical malpractice: a delay in diagnosing cancer. Often the damages are significant because when the cancer is finally detected, it has spread and the prognosis is not good: more likely than not your client will die as a result.
If you are an established lawyer and Washington State Association for Justice member, you may recall hearing an appeal to hire a work-study intern before. Yet now is arguably THE best time for all parties involved because of the state of the economy. The state budget crisis has meant cuts everywhere, including the work-study program. Still, if you hire an intern today you will likely be reimbursed 50 percent of the salary you pay him or her. You pay her $15, you get $7.50 of that back. That’s less than the
For many decades a hospital was primarily a physical facility to which doctors would admit patients for care or surgery. The admitting doctor – whether primary care doctor or surgeon — would then be in charge of the patient’s care while in the hospital, doing rounds on the patient, ordering medications and tests, and responding to nurses when called. It was a fairly simple model. Well, it’s not your father’s hospital any more.
Deaths and serious injuries resulting from preventable medical errors are a major problem in this country. Independent studies estimate 90,000 people die each year in hospitals alone because of such medical errors. This toll in human loss is the equivalent of 600 airplanes, with 150 passengers each, crashing every year. If only a fraction of such crashes occurred, it would be treated as a major national tragedy leading to a huge public effort to prevent such human losses in the future.
