Malpractice Related to Vaccines
With vaccines for COVID-19 (SARS CoV-2) rolling out, many people wonder about their safety and what they can do if they choose to get a vaccine and something goes wrong. A prevailing myth about vaccines is that they are beyond reproach, shielded from litigation by ‘vaccine courts’. While Congress approved the establishment of the national Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, this act didn’t give carte blanche to vaccine manufacturers. It is still very much possible to sue for malpractice in the case of a vaccine injury, in fact, it’s easier than some other filings in the medical malpractice world. Reasoning [...]
Hospital Errors Can Cause Cerebral Palsy
The birth of a child is a joyful event looked forward to with delight and anxious anticipation for months, sometimes years, beforehand. Many nights are spent reading pregnancy and parenting books, nurseries are meticulously painted and decorated, and pediatricians are carefully found. When an injury or other complication mars a moment and a life you have looked forward to for so long, it is deeply upsetting. When that complication or injury could have been prevented, it is tragic. The CDC reports that 1 out of 323 children in the U.S. is afflicted with cerebral palsy, which makes it the most common cause [...]
Why Workers’ Compensation Claims Get Denied
Workers’ compensation claims seem simple enough to most people. If you’re injured while on the job, you get to sue your employer, right? While you can certainly file the lawsuit for that reason, it might not necessarily work out the way you want it to. There are a number of reasons workers’ compensation claims get denied that you should know about before filing yours. No One Witnessed It If you got hurt at work, but no one was around to see it happen, who’s to say you didn’t get injured on your own time and then tried to blame your employer? [...]
The Peaks of Medical Malpractice: Fewer Claims, Bigger Mistakes
Trends in medical malpractice claims and payouts are promising. For the past 20 years claims for smaller settlements have dropped by 55%. It’s not all good news, though, claims for larger settlements have been going up. Today, a medical malpractice claim over $5 million is likely to pay out closer to $10 million. These patterns reflect a few changes in the ways that medical establishments comport themselves as well as changes in malpractice insurance and litigation processes. Malpractice Trends It’s often difficult to pinpoint what is causing a trend because it’s so rarely a single obvious cause. Trends are the results [...]
Under Construction: Personal Injury Near Worksites
Numerous jobs contain risk and dangerous elements. Those who work in these jobs receiving training about risk aversion to function safely in their professions. But what of those that end up risk adjacent? It is not enough for worksites and construction yards to warn of dangers, to avoid fault in personal injury cases, they need to be actively secured. Construction zones present many risks to the public and spaces nearby. Among these, falling debris and restricted movement in areas are of principle concern. Non-Worker Injuries Organizations such as OSHA and the more local MOSH, protect the public by presenting guidelines for [...]
Handling An Accident When At-Fault Party Has No License or No Insurance
Some people worry that they will someday be in an auto accident with an unlicensed or uninsured driver. Both conditions offer unique challenges for getting compensation for injuries and damage to the victim of an accident. When a driver is both unlicensed and uninsured, a victim is often left with little recourse. For some this is counter-intuitive, after all, a person without a license is driving illegally, and therefore automatically at fault, right? While there are criminal consequences for driving without license or while uninsured (or even under-insured) none of these conditions equal automatic fault. No License Only roughly two-thirds of [...]
Nutrition and Diet in Elder Care
It’s easy to undervalue the importance of nutrition on a day-to-day basis. You rely on your body to tough it out when you skip breakfast, work through lunch, or make dinner a few slices of old pizza. The older you get, the more you feel the effects of poor nutrition. Consistent, nutritious meals are a cornerstone of elder care. Without proper, and routine, nutrition, a person lacks the vitamins and minerals to heal and keep their immune system robust. That’s why it’s so important to evaluate the quality of food offer by care facilities. Meals are also a social event. They [...]
“Who’s at fault?”- Determining Negligence in Personal Injury Cases
One of the more difficult questions in a personal injury case is “who is at fault?” Deciding this question is the bulk of an injury claim with the remainder focused on to what extent and questions of compensation. Many states have what are known as "contributory negligence" laws. That is, how much does each party involved in an incident share some of the fault? In Maryland, it’s all or nothing. If a victim is found to be even partially at fault, they will not receive compensation. This makes it important to understand the facts of an incident and bring a strong [...]
Going Under: Risks of Anesthesia
Nothing in the medical world comes without some element of risk. The entire practice of medicine is guided by a principle of minimizing harm because of this. The human body is a massively interconnected set of systems that rarely allows for full understanding of the consequences of interaction. One of the more necessary risks in emergency and critical care is the use of anesthesia. Anesthesiologists have some of the best track records with low cases of malpractice and a low morbidity rate. Still, anesthesia has its own complications and they can have severe impacts. Even though there are a few experimental [...]
Court Delays and Limitations in Personal Injury
In these unprecedented times, courts have limited resources for both civil and criminal matters, at times they get overwhelmed and cases face delays. How do those delays impact the statute of limitations on personal injury cases? For the most part, this seems like a question with a simple solution. The statute of limitations applies to the filing of a case, not it’s conclusion. Filing doesn’t require time from the courts themselves. That isn’t the end of the discussion, though. New information is often turned up during the course of a case and some changes to filing documents have their own timelines. [...]
Hedging Bets: Malpractice From Delayed Treatment
Nobody likes to wait or be kept waiting. An expectation of timely service exists at the core of almost any business. For medical professionals, delays go beyond bad service and enter into the realm of medical malpractice. Even with medical services being slammed by overlapping issues such as natural disasters, an ongoing pandemic, and dwindling supplies the standard of care offered by a facility or office matters. When a doctor is unable to provide adequate treatment in a timely manner, they have a responsibility to redirect patients to adequate facilities. Even emergency services must operate within these restrictions. The exception being [...]
Onset of Physical Birth Injuries
It’s difficult to contemplate the horror a mother faces in finding out her child has been injured during the birth process. Second to that is the dread that any complication during labor may reveal future issues. This type of fear is as big as the person is willing to dedicate time to it. And for the uninformed, every problem becomes a sign of something deeper and more horrible. To ease this pressure, it’s best to have a framework for what types of symptoms to look for and at what time frames. Remember, birth injuries are rare, and many symptoms are one-offs [...]