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I don't want to get flamed for posting this. My hubby is big on tort reform and medical malpractice, and this article was forwarded onto him, which he sent to me. I found it rather interesting to read some of the "tatics" John Edwards used to sway juries.
It's an interesting read. Now that we are getting closer and closer to finishing, malpractice and the situation in certain states is becoming a deciding factor for us.
-----------------------------------------------------------
EDWARDS' MALPRACTICE SUITS LEAVE BITTER TASTE
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
-----------------------------------------------------------
The American Medical Association lists North Carolina's current health
care situation as a "crisis" and blames it on medical-malpractice
lawsuits such as the ones that made Democratic vice-presidential candidate
Sen. John Edwards a millionaire many times over.
One of the most successful personal-injury lawyers in North
Carolina history, Mr. Edwards won dozens of lawsuits against doctors and
hospitals across the state that he now represents in the Senate. He won
more than 50 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more,
according to North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, and 31 of those were
medical-malpractice suits.
During his 20 years of suing doctors and hospitals, he pioneered
the art of blaming psychiatrists for patients who commit suicide and
blaming doctors for delivering babies with cerebral palsy, according to
doctors, fellow lawyers and legal observers who followed Mr. Edwards'
career in North Carolina.
"The John Edwards we know crushed [obstetrics, gynecology] and
neurosurgery in North Carolina," said Dr. Craig VanDerVeer, a Charlotte
neurosurgeon. "As a result, thousands of patients lost their health
care."
"And all of this for the little people?" he asked, a reference to
Mr. Edwards' argument that he represented regular people against mighty
foes such as prosperous doctors and big insurance companies. "How many
little people do you know who will supply you with $60 million in legal
fees over a couple of years?"
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Edwards declined to comment beyond
e-mailing his and John Kerry's "real plan for medical-malpractice reform."
The plan calls for one measure that Mr. Edwards previously had
said is meaningless and does not impose caps on verdicts for economic
damages or limits on attorneys' fees.
One of his most noted victories was a $23 million settlement he
got from a 1995 case — his last before joining the Senate — in which he
sued the doctor, gynecological clinic, anesthesiologist and hospital
involved in the birth of Bailey Griffin, who had cerebral palsy and other
medical problems.
Linking complications during childbirth to cerebral palsy became a
specialty for Mr. Edwards. In the courtroom, he was known to dramatize
the events at birth by speaking to jurors as if he were the unborn
baby, begging for help, begging to be let out of the womb.
"He was very good at it," said Dr. John Schmitt, an obstetrician
and gynecologist who used to practice in Mr. Edwards' hometown of
Raleigh. "But the science behind a lot of his arguments was flawed."
In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a joint study that cast
serious doubt on whether events at childbirth cause cerebral palsy. The
"vast majority" of cerebral palsy cases originate long before
childbirth, according to the study.
"Now, he would have a much harder time proving a lot of his
cases," said Dr. Schmitt, who now practices at the University of Virginia
Health System.
Another profitable area of litigation for Mr. Edwards was lawsuits
against psychiatrists whose patients committed suicide.
In 1991, he won $2.2 million for the estate of a woman who hanged
herself in a hospital after being removed from suicide watch. It was
the first successful medical-malpractice case in Mr. Edwards' home of
Wake County.
During jury selection, Mr. Edwards asked potential jurors whether
they could hold a doctor responsible for the suicide of their patients.
"I got a lot of speeches from potential jurors who said they did
not understand how that doctor could be responsible," Mr. Edwards
recalled in an interview shortly after the trial. Those persons were excluded
from the jury.
In the end, Mr. Edwards scored $1.5 million for "wrongful death"
and $175,000 in "emotional distress" for the woman's children.
"One thing I was grappling with was how to explain to the jury the
difference between loss of companionship and society — the things
under the wrongful-death statute — and emotional pain and suffering, which
superficially sound like the same thing," he said at the time. "What we
did was to tell them the wrongful-death damages are for the loss of all
the things that a mother does for the child. But the emotional pain and
suffering damages represent the grieving. The pain is something you
feel over the death of your mother."
In 1995, as Mr. Edwards neared the pinnacle of his success,
Lawyers Weekly reported on the state's 50 biggest settlements of the year.
"Like last year, the medical malpractice category leads the new
list, accounting for 16 cases — or 32 percent — three points better
than last year," the magazine reported. "By and large, that upward trend
had held since 1992, when only four [medical malpractice] cases made the
survey."
Mr. Edwards was singled out.
"Another reason for this year's [medical malpractice] jump was a
strong showing by the Raleigh firm of Edwards & Kirby," it reported.
"Partner John Edwards was lead counsel in eight of the 16 medical
malpractice cases in the top 50."
Later in that article, Mr. Edwards was interviewed about the $5
million he won from doctors who delivered Ethan L. Bedrick, who had
cerebral palsy. Mr. Edwards credited the jury focus groups that he routinely
used to help prepare his arguments.
"They gave me several bits and pieces of information to use when
addressing the jury," Mr. Edwards was quoted saying. "You can use them
to decide whether to get involved in a case or whether to accept a
settlement offer, but our primary use is trial presentation."
The article went on to observe: "Focus groups can be put together
for as little as $300, according to Edwards — a small investment
compared to the $5 million won in Bedrick."
It is not clear just how much Mr. Edwards made as a lawyer, but
estimates based on a review of his lawsuit settlements and Senate records
place his fortune at about $38 million.
Like many Democrats, Mr. Edwards has benefited from the
generosity of fellow trial lawyers, who have given millions of dollars to Mr.
Edwards' political campaigns and other political endeavors.
Part of the platform that Mr. Edwards is running on includes
medical-malpractice reform. The Democrats' plan would go after insurance
companies that increase doctors' premiums and ban lawyers and plaintiffs
for 10 years if they file three frivolous lawsuits.
One tenet of their plan would "require that individuals making
medical-malpractice claims first go before a qualified medical specialist
to make sure a reasonable grievance exists."
However, Mr. Edwards said in a 1995 interview that such
pre-screening is unnecessary.
"Pre-screening as a concept is very good, but it's already done by
every experienced malpractice lawyer," he told North Carolina Lawyers
Weekly.
As a result of these and other cases, insurance rates for doctors
have skyrocketed — putting some out of business and driving others
away, especially from rural areas. And doctors who have lost cases to Mr.
Edwards have been bankrupted.
Patients, meanwhile, are left with rising health care costs and
fewer — if any — doctors in their area. It is increasingly a nationwide
problem, physicians say.
Dr. VanDerVeer, the Charlotte neurosurgeon, recalled one recent
night on duty when two patients arrived in an emergency room in Myrtle
Beach, S.C., where the area's last neurosurgeons quit earlier this year.
"No one in Myrtle Beach would accept responsibility for these
patients," he said. And because it was raining, the helicopters were
grounded, so the patients were loaded into ambulances and driven the four
hours to Charlotte.
Upon arrival, one patient had died, and the other learned that she
merely had a minor concussion — and a $6,000 bill for the ambulance
ride.
"That's just one little slice of life here," Dr. VanDerVeer said.
"It's a direct result of the medical-malpractice situation that John
Edwards fomented."
Dr. Schmitt had spent 20 years delivering babies in Raleigh.
Though he had no claims against him, his insurance tripled in one year. With
no assurances that his rates would ever drop, or just stop rising, he
left town.
For Mr. Edwards' part, he doesn't necessarily begrudge the doctors
he sues.
In the book he wrote while campaigning for president, "Four
Trials," Mr. Edwards referred to the doctors who he'd won millions from in
two cases.
"In the E.G. Sawyer case and the Jennifer Campbell case, the
defendants were not malevolent but were caring and competent doctors who
worked in good hospitals and yet made grievous mistakes," he wrote. "They
had erred in their judgment, but no one could despise them."
Doctors, however, take it all a bit more personally.
"We are currently being sued out of existence," Dr. VanDerVeer
said. "People have to choose whether they want these lawyers to make
gazillions of dollars in pain and suffering awards or whether they want
health care."
-----------------------------------------------------------
This article was mailed from The Washington Times
(http://www.washingtontimes.com/national ... -1949r.htm)
For more great articles, visit us at http://www.washingtontimes.com
Copyright (c) 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
It's an interesting read. Now that we are getting closer and closer to finishing, malpractice and the situation in certain states is becoming a deciding factor for us.
-----------------------------------------------------------
EDWARDS' MALPRACTICE SUITS LEAVE BITTER TASTE
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
-----------------------------------------------------------
The American Medical Association lists North Carolina's current health
care situation as a "crisis" and blames it on medical-malpractice
lawsuits such as the ones that made Democratic vice-presidential candidate
Sen. John Edwards a millionaire many times over.
One of the most successful personal-injury lawyers in North
Carolina history, Mr. Edwards won dozens of lawsuits against doctors and
hospitals across the state that he now represents in the Senate. He won
more than 50 cases with verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more,
according to North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, and 31 of those were
medical-malpractice suits.
During his 20 years of suing doctors and hospitals, he pioneered
the art of blaming psychiatrists for patients who commit suicide and
blaming doctors for delivering babies with cerebral palsy, according to
doctors, fellow lawyers and legal observers who followed Mr. Edwards'
career in North Carolina.
"The John Edwards we know crushed [obstetrics, gynecology] and
neurosurgery in North Carolina," said Dr. Craig VanDerVeer, a Charlotte
neurosurgeon. "As a result, thousands of patients lost their health
care."
"And all of this for the little people?" he asked, a reference to
Mr. Edwards' argument that he represented regular people against mighty
foes such as prosperous doctors and big insurance companies. "How many
little people do you know who will supply you with $60 million in legal
fees over a couple of years?"
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Edwards declined to comment beyond
e-mailing his and John Kerry's "real plan for medical-malpractice reform."
The plan calls for one measure that Mr. Edwards previously had
said is meaningless and does not impose caps on verdicts for economic
damages or limits on attorneys' fees.
One of his most noted victories was a $23 million settlement he
got from a 1995 case — his last before joining the Senate — in which he
sued the doctor, gynecological clinic, anesthesiologist and hospital
involved in the birth of Bailey Griffin, who had cerebral palsy and other
medical problems.
Linking complications during childbirth to cerebral palsy became a
specialty for Mr. Edwards. In the courtroom, he was known to dramatize
the events at birth by speaking to jurors as if he were the unborn
baby, begging for help, begging to be let out of the womb.
"He was very good at it," said Dr. John Schmitt, an obstetrician
and gynecologist who used to practice in Mr. Edwards' hometown of
Raleigh. "But the science behind a lot of his arguments was flawed."
In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a joint study that cast
serious doubt on whether events at childbirth cause cerebral palsy. The
"vast majority" of cerebral palsy cases originate long before
childbirth, according to the study.
"Now, he would have a much harder time proving a lot of his
cases," said Dr. Schmitt, who now practices at the University of Virginia
Health System.
Another profitable area of litigation for Mr. Edwards was lawsuits
against psychiatrists whose patients committed suicide.
In 1991, he won $2.2 million for the estate of a woman who hanged
herself in a hospital after being removed from suicide watch. It was
the first successful medical-malpractice case in Mr. Edwards' home of
Wake County.
During jury selection, Mr. Edwards asked potential jurors whether
they could hold a doctor responsible for the suicide of their patients.
"I got a lot of speeches from potential jurors who said they did
not understand how that doctor could be responsible," Mr. Edwards
recalled in an interview shortly after the trial. Those persons were excluded
from the jury.
In the end, Mr. Edwards scored $1.5 million for "wrongful death"
and $175,000 in "emotional distress" for the woman's children.
"One thing I was grappling with was how to explain to the jury the
difference between loss of companionship and society — the things
under the wrongful-death statute — and emotional pain and suffering, which
superficially sound like the same thing," he said at the time. "What we
did was to tell them the wrongful-death damages are for the loss of all
the things that a mother does for the child. But the emotional pain and
suffering damages represent the grieving. The pain is something you
feel over the death of your mother."
In 1995, as Mr. Edwards neared the pinnacle of his success,
Lawyers Weekly reported on the state's 50 biggest settlements of the year.
"Like last year, the medical malpractice category leads the new
list, accounting for 16 cases — or 32 percent — three points better
than last year," the magazine reported. "By and large, that upward trend
had held since 1992, when only four [medical malpractice] cases made the
survey."
Mr. Edwards was singled out.
"Another reason for this year's [medical malpractice] jump was a
strong showing by the Raleigh firm of Edwards & Kirby," it reported.
"Partner John Edwards was lead counsel in eight of the 16 medical
malpractice cases in the top 50."
Later in that article, Mr. Edwards was interviewed about the $5
million he won from doctors who delivered Ethan L. Bedrick, who had
cerebral palsy. Mr. Edwards credited the jury focus groups that he routinely
used to help prepare his arguments.
"They gave me several bits and pieces of information to use when
addressing the jury," Mr. Edwards was quoted saying. "You can use them
to decide whether to get involved in a case or whether to accept a
settlement offer, but our primary use is trial presentation."
The article went on to observe: "Focus groups can be put together
for as little as $300, according to Edwards — a small investment
compared to the $5 million won in Bedrick."
It is not clear just how much Mr. Edwards made as a lawyer, but
estimates based on a review of his lawsuit settlements and Senate records
place his fortune at about $38 million.
Like many Democrats, Mr. Edwards has benefited from the
generosity of fellow trial lawyers, who have given millions of dollars to Mr.
Edwards' political campaigns and other political endeavors.
Part of the platform that Mr. Edwards is running on includes
medical-malpractice reform. The Democrats' plan would go after insurance
companies that increase doctors' premiums and ban lawyers and plaintiffs
for 10 years if they file three frivolous lawsuits.
One tenet of their plan would "require that individuals making
medical-malpractice claims first go before a qualified medical specialist
to make sure a reasonable grievance exists."
However, Mr. Edwards said in a 1995 interview that such
pre-screening is unnecessary.
"Pre-screening as a concept is very good, but it's already done by
every experienced malpractice lawyer," he told North Carolina Lawyers
Weekly.
As a result of these and other cases, insurance rates for doctors
have skyrocketed — putting some out of business and driving others
away, especially from rural areas. And doctors who have lost cases to Mr.
Edwards have been bankrupted.
Patients, meanwhile, are left with rising health care costs and
fewer — if any — doctors in their area. It is increasingly a nationwide
problem, physicians say.
Dr. VanDerVeer, the Charlotte neurosurgeon, recalled one recent
night on duty when two patients arrived in an emergency room in Myrtle
Beach, S.C., where the area's last neurosurgeons quit earlier this year.
"No one in Myrtle Beach would accept responsibility for these
patients," he said. And because it was raining, the helicopters were
grounded, so the patients were loaded into ambulances and driven the four
hours to Charlotte.
Upon arrival, one patient had died, and the other learned that she
merely had a minor concussion — and a $6,000 bill for the ambulance
ride.
"That's just one little slice of life here," Dr. VanDerVeer said.
"It's a direct result of the medical-malpractice situation that John
Edwards fomented."
Dr. Schmitt had spent 20 years delivering babies in Raleigh.
Though he had no claims against him, his insurance tripled in one year. With
no assurances that his rates would ever drop, or just stop rising, he
left town.
For Mr. Edwards' part, he doesn't necessarily begrudge the doctors
he sues.
In the book he wrote while campaigning for president, "Four
Trials," Mr. Edwards referred to the doctors who he'd won millions from in
two cases.
"In the E.G. Sawyer case and the Jennifer Campbell case, the
defendants were not malevolent but were caring and competent doctors who
worked in good hospitals and yet made grievous mistakes," he wrote. "They
had erred in their judgment, but no one could despise them."
Doctors, however, take it all a bit more personally.
"We are currently being sued out of existence," Dr. VanDerVeer
said. "People have to choose whether they want these lawyers to make
gazillions of dollars in pain and suffering awards or whether they want
health care."
-----------------------------------------------------------
This article was mailed from The Washington Times
(http://www.washingtontimes.com/national ... -1949r.htm)
For more great articles, visit us at http://www.washingtontimes.com
Copyright (c) 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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