So, this is lawyer humor for when surgeons unintentionally leave surgical material behind in patients and stitch the patient up and send them home. Neither the patient nor the doctor realize that a sponge, clamp or other item was left inside the patient until the patient starts having pain in the area. Sometimes, the pain will not appear for months …
Judge Alito Gets Schooled By Sen. Markwayne Mullin
So, following hard on the heels of Judge Alito’s decision that Roe v. Wade was no good, our friends on the bench in the deep south just decided that fertilized embryos were also people. None other than esteemed meathead Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, quickly piped up that he and his wife had used IVF to have children and …
What is Great Customer Service in the Legal Profession?
Great customer service is a critical element of my business. I cannot compete with Morgan and Morgan for stupid ads. I cannot offend people like Top Dog Law. I cannot gather as many negative yelp reviews or complaints to the disciplinary board of Pennsylvania as my larger competitors. But, what I can do is listen to what you are going …
Regulators Waking Up To Persistent Negligent Conduct: Med Spas
Regulators recently posted warnings to the national community that many med spas were potentially dangerous to their customers. What is wrong with med spas? Well, if you go in for laser hair removal and there is no doctor monitoring what is going on or training the aestheticians, the potential for harm is higher than it needs to be. Do you …
Regulators Waking Up To Persistent Negligent Conduct: Nursing Home Neglect
The New York Times and Harvard Public Health completed studies which found that hedge fund investments in nursing homes resulted in worse customer service than before the investment. What is wrong with nursing home investments by hedge funds? Well, as a general rule in business, employee payrolls total about 50% of the business’ expenses. If you can reduce employee head …
The Paper Ceiling Ads and Failure to Diagnose Malpractice
Have you seen these ads trying to build public support for the idea that college degrees are not the only important credential. Regardless what the paper ceiling ads try to tell you or your local tradesperson says, completing college makes an enormous difference in your lifetime income in America. If lifetime income is not your focus, then I appreciate the …
MORE EFFICIENT LAWYERING: THE PRACTICE OF LAW POST-PANDEMIC
The pandemic wrought a lot of changes in the practice of law just like any other business that was affected in a significant way. Interestingly, the nature of litigators is to be averse to changes in how the court system functions. The pandemic familiarized everyone with zoom and it inadvertently made us a more efficient system. For example, I have …
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE / NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ON DOCTORS UNIONIZING
Unfortunately, there is a lot of medical malpractice in our health care system. Usually, it is not the fault of individual practitioners but the fault of the system dropping the ball during handoffs of the patient from one service to another. For sure, there are bad surgeons and poorly trained ER docs, and mistakes made. But, most often, in the …
What’s new in Mass Tort Law? Phillips CPAP and Hair Straightener Litigation
I was recently contacted about a developing mass tort situation involving Phillips CPAP machines and decided that the client did not have a case. The issue in these cases is whether a connection can be drawn between cpap machines and a patient’s cancer. After reviewing the literature and the patient’s pathology report it appeared that the one thing I could …
Medical Malpractice: Easy vs. Tough Calls
Some cases are easy to understand and some require research and expert opinions. All malpractice cases in Pennsylvania require that I obtain a certificate of merit from a doctor with a specialty in the appropriate area of medicine. Generally, I prefer a clean, clear set of injuries and damages. What sort of cases are ones that I take vs. turn …