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David… I guess putting a hit out on the bad doctors would thin the herd and bring the standards up a bit!
You know, kimball, what you characterize as “frivolous lawsuits” must still have some merit or they wouldn’t be successful. Whether decided by a jury, a judge, an arbitrator, or the parties’ attorneys settling the matter between themselves, there still have to be some grounds, some basis for the complaint or there would be no award.
David… no personal injury / malpractice attorney goes to a judge with a case… you want your claim in front of a jury of folks too stupid to get out of jury duty… folks that think the $28 per day serving on a jury is good money! Juries are known to give away the store… so much so that PI/MP lawyers seek folks they figure are more likely to make a big award because they don’t work for their money themselves…. and defense lawyers that attempt to have cases heard in courts where folks know the value of a dollar! How many times have you seen some HUGH award reduced by the trail judge as be excessive? That tells you something!
While I’m sure there are many case with merit there are MANY more that are nothing but an alternate lottery win that requires a lawyer… why do juries award folks big money for smoking injuries when they been putting the warning on the packs for as long as I can remember? It’s wonderful that juries want to stick it to the big boys… but in the end it’s you and I that pay! And as we’ve found with the health care issue… it’s a BIG problem.
If these claims are for reckless acts by doctors that result in death or injury shouldn’t we be trying them in criminal court as both acts constitute punishable offenses under EVERY state’s penal code rather than a lottery win for the folks looking for a big payday?
The system is broken… lawyers are at the root of the system…
Imx, can you cite a single case, just one, in which a prosecuting attorney has brought criminal charges against a physician for an act of malpractice which constituted a tort?
I have to revert to my previous sentiment . . . No one other than trial attorneys represents the interests of harmed patients. Not the hospitals. Not the licensing agencies. Not the AMA. Not the insurance companies. Who, exactly, will step forward to advocate the case of a harmed patient if not an attorney?
Now you may assert that you select your doctor and you take your chances. If you don’t want the wrong limb amputated, be more careful next time, right? Well, maybe so, but I’ll bet that the first time a surgeon leaves an instrument in your abdomen your tune will change radically — and rightly so.
David… do a quick yahoo search using “doctor charged in patients death”…. as I just did… it came back with 18,500,000 replies… I got through the first few pages which will provide you with MANY more than the “single” case you asked for. You can check and you’ll find that most were not only charged criminally but where the subject of civil suits as well!
A tort is defined as…. “A person who suffers legal damages may be able to use tort law to receive compensation from someone who is legally responsible, or liable, for those injuries. Generally speaking, tort law defines what constitutes a legal injury and establishes the circumstances under which one person may be held liable for another’s injury. Torts cover intentional acts and accidents.”
Since “accidents” just don’t happen and can be considered criminal in nature should the culpable mental state be one that is defined in state law both criminal and civil penalties are applicable. Most modern criminal codes define the culpable mental states in specific terms such as acting intentionally, purposefully, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently.
So as you can see… there is nothing stopping doctors from being hit criminally as well as civil… the shame is most folks don’t seek criminal justice… it doesn’t provide a pay day…. where as the civil suit is better than the lottery… NO TAXES!
Justice is much sweeter when there is a big money award attached… lawyers will always seek “justice” which lines their pockets rather than taking a dangerous doctor out of the field.
Well, while it may be theoretically possible to hit a physician with a criminal complaint for his or her negligence, does anyone know of its ever having actually happened? Lots of things that are theoretically possible never actually occur.
And, by the way, a criminal conviction provides a very strong basis for a civil action. Take, for example, the case of someone convicted of vehicular manslaughter for killing another person in an accident that the perpetrator caused. The manslaughter conviction virtually guarantees the outcome of the civil action.
So which physician has been criminally charged and convicted? And what sentence did s/he receive?
I stand corrected . . .
I did a Google search on “physician convicted on criminal charges” and found a New York case of a physician who was, indeed, convicted (of endangerment, I think) for tardy referral of a dying woman in a nursing home to a hospital. He was sentenced to fifty-two weekends in Rikers Island but that sentence was later vacated by a judge. This happened in 1996, thirteen years ago.
All the other top Google hits were legal journal articles that discussed the potential implications of physicians being convicted of crimes not related to their medical licensure and practice.
Nothing I found suggests strongly that prosecutors are actively prosecuting physicians criminally for acts of medical malpractice, so the question remains: who will speak for the victims if not their attorneys? And, has there been such a prosecution in (say) this century?
One thing to remember, If doctors could be sent to jail for making a mistake, who would want to be a doctor?
Great point… but following that same logic… if a doctor can be sued for making a good faith mistake… and losses his shirt… or is hit with crazy insurance rates…. who would want to be a doctor?
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