The Trend of Threatening Physicians for Personal Gain
Terminating Your Physician Employment Contract: Knowing your Exit Strategy
Malpractice Insurance: What Physicians And Dentists Should Know About Their Coverage
Malpractice Insurance: What Providers Need to Know
Polsinelli Podcast - Avoiding Professional Liability
Medical Malpractice Litigation
The term “peer review privilege” generally refers to a discovery and evidentiary privilege that can be asserted by hospitals and other healthcare entities to protect the confidentiality of credentialing, quality improvement,...more
Key Points: Standard of Care: Patient assessment and discussion of procedures to be performed to evaluate the patient prior to surgery fall under the purview of the standard of care, not informed consent....more
Vandever v. Stair, 2025 WL 523863 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2025) - The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the dismissal of a medical negligence claim against a physician, finding that the plaintiff failed to present sufficient...more
The Reptile Theory is a litigation strategy intended to activate jurors’ survival instincts during trial and is designed to induce fear over logic and reason when hearing a case. Rather than focusing on the standard of care...more
On December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued its decision in Stull v. Summa, a medical negligence case in which the defendants argued that Ohio’s statutory peer-review privilege protected from discovery the file the...more
Background - On December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued its decision in Stull v. Summa, a medical negligence case in which the defendants argued that Ohio’s statutory peer-review privilege protected from...more
Early v. Patient First Medical Group, et al., 311 A.3d 608 (Pa. Super. Dec. 26, 2023) - The plaintiff was bitten by a dog and treated by the defendants. She later filed a medical malpractice action against the providers who...more
Many people are aware that if they are injured due to someone’s negligence in a car accident, slip and fall incident, medical malpractice, or other situations, an experienced personal injury attorney can file a legal claim to...more
Efforts by defendants to challenge venue in Philadelphia took another backwards step this week when the Superior Court of Pennsylvania reversed a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas’ order transferring venue to Bucks County....more
Key Points: New Jersey’s Appellate Division held that an inspection of a hospital’s electronic medical records, including its metadata, is discoverable despite the risks and burdens of producing such information for review....more
Medical malpractice claims are complex legal claims that often involve traumatic personal stories and complicated medical and legal issues. Every claim is different, and one unique fact in a case can have a significant impact...more
Parties in peer review hearings can present a wide range of relevant evidence, regardless of its admissibility in a court of law. But California has passed a new “apology law” that modifies that standard, erecting a...more
Deborah Palmer (“Plaintiff”), as the surviving spouse of Vance Palmer (“Mr. Palmer”), brought multiple claims against defendants Christiana Care Health Services, Inc. (“Hospital”) and neurosurgeon Bikash Bose, M.D. (“Dr....more
Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Mark’s December 29, 2020 Administrative Order includes several new rules that will be extended from the Commercial Division to other civil courts, including Supreme Court, the...more
Did a trial court err in excluding evidence of subsequent formal diagnosis of autism when potentially alternative cause of current condition of minor? Julien Florez v. Northshore University Healthsystem d/b/a Evanston...more
What is the appropriate time for filing a dispositive motion in medical malpractice actions? Schicheng Guo, as Special Administrator of the Estate of Shinqian Bao, deceased v. International Teleradiology, LLC, Swedish...more
Issue - Can a party who has disclosed a physician as a controlled expert witness pursuant to 213(f)(3) later redesignate that expert as a consultant pursuant to Rule 213(b)(3)? Alexis Dameron v. Mercy Hospital and Medical...more
The “empty chair” defense, where the defendant denies responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries and blames a person absent from trial (i.e. the “empty chair”), can be extremely effective in tort actions. The Court of...more
Introduction - A recent decision by a Texas Court of Appeals reaffirms several important principles regarding the medical peer review privilege: (1) communications arguably covered by the peer review privilege need not be...more
In roughly the seventh week after a majority of states and the federal government issued emergency declarations or "lock down" executive orders, the true impact of COVID-19 is only beginning to be fully transparent. In long...more
There are numerous benefits associated with using mediation to resolve medical malpractice disputes. The mediation process affords both parties more control over the process, often reduces the cost of litigation, and can...more
On September 23, 2019, the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Corey v. Wilkes-Barre General Hospital held that divorce records, including attorney-client communications, were discoverable. The Superior Court’s decision in Corey...more
Until recently, there had been confusion regarding the application of Florida’s Medical Malpractice Act (the “Act”) as it pertains to (1) the proper appellate standard of review of a presuit expert’s qualifications, and (2)...more
On March 23, 2018, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court joined the First District in allowing plaintiffs to invoke the Illinois’ Respondent in Discovery Statute (735 ILCS 5/2-402) to file an amended complaint...more
In the case of Weaver v. Myers, a sharply divided Florida Supreme Court recently struck down part of the 2013 amendments to Fla. Stats. §§766.106 and 766.1065, which govern the informal discovery process of the medical...more