Tragically, just 40 minutes can make the difference between a healthy baby and a little girl who will never walk, never talk, never feed herself, never have a boyfriend, never get married…

In this case handled by Elmira medical malpractice attorney Jim Reed, the Labor and Delivery nurses hooked the Mom up to an electronic fetal monitor and then left the Mom unattended for 40+ minutes. Unfortunately, fetal monitors are absolutely no good if no one is there to read the results….

That’s why the standard of care for labor and delivery nurses requires nurses to review the monitor strips for the first 20 minutes that the mother is placed on the monitor. If all is OK after 20 minutes, the Mom can then be left unattended for short periods of time. If the strips are not OK, then the nurse is trained to immediately intervene and summon a doctor if necessary.

In this case, a careful review of the medical records revealed that the mother had been left totally unattended for the first 40+ minutes she was placed on the fetal monitor. As you might have guessed, the monitor strips were bad meaning that the baby was in trouble and needed immediate delivery. The problem is that no one was in the room to hear read the results and respond to the baby’s cries for help. As a result, the necessary C-section to rescue the baby was delayed by more than an hour causing the baby to suffer profound brain damage (Cerebral Palsy). The baby was rushed from the Corning Hospital to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, but the damage was already done. The baby had a permanent brain injury called Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) which means that the baby’s brain was deprived of oxygen at birth. Read the rest…

Just because you say it is so, doesn’t make it so…..

The tradition goes on. Year after year, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, bashes one of his favorite whipping boys– the “frivolous” lawsuit. Only this year, he called it “junk” lawsuits. Why the change of language? Well, it seems the study (read it here) that most of the advocates of tort deform like to rely upon for supporting their claims about frivolous lawsuits specifically concluded: “[P]ortraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown.” Yup, claims of frivolous lawsuits are OVERBLOWN. Wow, wonder why the President didn’t say that?

One of my favorite bloggers, NYC medical malpractice attorney Eric Turkewitz, gives a wonderful analysis of the President’s speech and the study mentioned above in two posts: here and here. Great reading for those folks interested in getting beyond the hype and down to the cold facts.

Thanks for reading,

Jim Reed

Got a shiny new GPS for Christmas? A word to the wise– please, please, please do not blindly follow your GPS. As great as a GPS can be (particularly to those stubborn males like myself who refuse to ask for directions!), they are not infallible.

A fellow from Bedford Hills, NY, learned this simple lesson when his car was destroyed in a huge train vs. car accident.

Here’s a post on Engadget about this collision:

Once again proving that “people be stupid,” a Bedford Hills, New York man allowed his GPS to navigate him onto train tracks… while a train was approaching. Entering a long line of folks like Cherry Tree Guy and the Narrow Lane Invader, this mentat in question apparently followed directions to “turn right” onto a set of tracks, which he then inexplicably became stuck on. Upon noticing the speeding locomotive heading towards his car, the man jumped out of the vehicle and tried to warn the engineer by waving his arms frantically — to no avail. The train slammed into the truck at 60 MPH and pushed the vehicle more than 100-feet, damaging 250-feet of track. The man was unharmed, though we understand his ego has filed for divorce.

One of the things I have learned in my 20+ years of handling medical malpractice cases in New York and Pennsylvania is that it is absolutely critical that patients (and their families) must be active advocates for their own care. What I mean be this is you can NOT safely assume that your doctors/nurses are necessarily providing appropriate care or that they are fully familar with your medical history. But please don’t get me wrong– I truly respect doctors/nurses/medical providers– most (sadly not all) are intelligent, hard-working people who truly want to provide good medical care. The problem is that all too often the medical “system” dooms these people to failure because they are over-worked, under-staffed and sometimes poorly trained.

Below is a great article from Bottom Line’s Daily Health News that got me to thinking about this issue. My thanks to the quoted source for the article, Tom Sharon, for emailing it to me as part of his weekly email discussions of health care issues. Tom, who is a Registered Nurse himself, gives many great tips for protecting yourself and your loved ones from sub-standard medical care. This really should be required reading for all of us who care about getting the best medical treatment possible.
Read the rest…

My good friend, Dov Apfel, a medical malpractice attorney from Maryland who handles birth injury cases, wrote a very informative article in the December issue of Trial magazine (pasted below) about structured settlements in cerebral palsy medical malpractice cases.

Put most simply, a structured settlement means that rather than receiving all of the settlement money at one time, it is received in future installment payments. There are often huge financiallbenefits to structured settlements and I will post about them in a separate article. However, structures can be complex so it is important that the plaintiff’s attorney know exactly what they are doing so they don’t screw this up.

As experienced medical malpractice attorneys know all too well, sometimes arriving at an agreed-upon settlement amount with your adversary is just the beginning of a whole lot of work that is necessary to structure a settlement in a way that is most beneficial to your client. In fact, competent counsel know that you cannot begin to properly evaluate any settlement offer until you have already thought through exactly how any settlement amount will be received and allocated.

Accordingly, I believe that it is imperative in any substantial case that you perform your structured settlement analysis BEFORE you undertake any settlement negotiations. I can’t tell you the number of times my cases have benefitted from my conversations with structured settlement experts who pointed out subtle issues that made a big difference in the ultimate settlement of my case.

Read the rest…

Folks frequently ask me if they need representation in their New York Workers’ Compensation case and almost invariably my answer is yes. People tend to think that they have a simple case. What could go wrong? Everything.

In a Workers’ Compensation case, like most injury cases, you’re dealing with insurance companies. Insurance companies don’t make money by writing checks. They make money by denying claims or by paying you as little as possible.

We are frequently told by clients who have attempted to represent themselves that the insurance company was great in the beginning, but when the client’s injury didn’t heal well or the client experienced a consequential injury then the insurance company became considerably less helpful.

At this point, the insurance company will usually send you for an independent medical exam. Don’t let the name fool you – there’s nothing independent about it. The so-called independent medical exam is a paid-for medical opinion and is a pitfall for the unprepared. The insurance company will then use that paid-for opinion of the medical examiner to reduce their liability for your wage and medical benefits.

Don’t go it alone. Please come back for my next installment on Workers’ Compensation in which I have some good news for everybody’s next question, which is what is representation going to cost me.

Thanks for reading,

Jim Reed
NY and PA Accident & Injury Lawyer
jreed@zifflaw.com
www.zifflaw.com

Although this post isn’t directly related to my usual posts regarding NY injury law, I nonetheless thought it was an interesting one that would be of interest to my readers.

A Chicago lawyer doesn’t like some comments that an anonymous blogger has been making about this attorney and his firm so the attorney has offered a $10,000 reward for whoever reveals the identity of the anonymous blogger. Kind of reminds me of the “Wanted” posters for the bad guys in the old Western movies!

I personally dislike the idea of anonymous blogging and feel that if you feel strongly enough about what you are saying than you should be strong enough to sign your name to it. We all know it’s easy to talk tough behind someone’s back or anonymously but the real test of one’s conviction is to do it face-to-face or by signing one’s name.

With that said, I understand that many very interesting blogs are anonymous because the writer’s circumstances force them to post anonymously because otherwise they would be promptly fired.

So this really creates a dilemma and I would be very curious to hear back from my readers as to how they feel about anonymous blogging– is it a good thing or bad thing? Please post your comments and we can have a discussion regarding this interesting dilemma…… Read the rest…

Have you ever experienced the frustration of trying to find a zip code for a particular address? Well, the good news is that there are several easy ways to find a zip code:

• Google it! Just put in a simple search: zip code Elmira, NY. It will provide the various zip codes for Elmira.
• There are many internet search sites that can provide area codes: Addresses.com
• Most phonebooks have a page in either the front of the book listing all the local zip codes.

If you are looking for local zip codes in our area of the Twin Tiers (Upstate NY) here is a pretty comprehensive list:

Read the rest…

STATISTICS DON’T LIE!
The medical profession brings health and hope to millions of Americans every day; however, far too many are injured or killed due to medical mistakes. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report documenting that as many as 98,000 patients die each year as a result of medical errors in hospitals. That’s more people than are killed by guns each year! Compound hospital deaths with the unreported mistakes made in other healthcare settings (physicians’ offices, urgent care centers, nursing homes, pharmacies and home care) and the magnitude of medical malpractice becomes staggering. In addition to the high-costs of medical mistakes in terms of lives and quality of life, our nation pays an estimated $74 billion per year in costs due to preventable errors.

THE FIRST STEP IS RECOGNIZING THAT MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!
No one wants to think that THEIR doctor could commit malpractice. This belief is often held not out of blind trust in the physician, but out of a common misperception that bad things only happen to other people. Some people have had the same family physician for decades, and could never believe their trusted friend would cause them harm. The truth is that Medical Malpractice can happen to any of us, including our parents, children and friends, at any time. It happens in big cities, small towns and rural outposts. It CAN happen to you.

THE SECOND STEP IS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
If you feel you may have been the victim of Medical Malpractice, the WORST thing you can do is nothing. In New York, the State of Limitations, (the time within which you must bring your claim) is 2½ years, and it is only 2 years in Pennsylvania. If you fail to file your claim within the Statute of Limitations, you will be unable to ever collect a penny. You can’t just walk into an attorney’s office two years down the road and expect everything to be taken care of. Medical Malpractice cases are perhaps the most complicated and difficult type of civil litigation, often taking a year or more of investigation and expert consultation to determine whether a claim should be filed. Many attorneys won’t even consider taking a case if they are contacted too close to the Statute of Limitations to permit a proper investigation.

THE THIRD STEP IS TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY WITH EXPERIENCE HANDLING MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES.
Not every attorney handles medical malpractice cases, and not every attorney should. They are expensive, require hundreds of hours of preparation and there is no guarantee of success in the end. Medical Malpractice is a highly specialized area of law requiring knowledge of special rules pertaining to the area, as well as knowledge of biology, chemistry, and a thorough understanding of the medical procedure involved. Hiring an attorney who can’t or won’t do the preparation necessary to properly present your case, or who doesn’t have the resources to spend the tens of thousands of dollars necessary to bring your case to trial could prove fatal to your case. At the Ziff Law Firm, our team of malpractice attorneys is proud to regularly receive referrals of Medical Malpractice cases from other attorneys throughout New York and Pennsylvania. The fact that other attorneys trust us enough to refer their family, friends and clients for the handling of their malpractice case is extremely gratifying.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
Some people may hesitate to pursue a potential case out of mistaken belief that litigation is in some way related to rising medical costs. The TRUTH is that while medical costs have increased by 113% since 1987, the amount spent by the healthcare industry on medical malpractice insurance has only increased by 52% over the same period of time. According to the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, insurance companies are raising rates because of poor returns on their investments, not because of litigation and justice. Numerous studies have debunked the medical profession’s false claim that malpractice cases are driving doctors away or putting them out of business. The “caps” placed on non-economic damages in some states have been totally ineffective in stemming the increased cost of malpractice insurance; malpractice insurance rates in states with such caps are actually higher than states without caps. The most effective way to reduce malpractice premiums is to take away the license of repeat offenders, which the medical profession has vigorously opposed.

We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding medical malpractice.

Thanks for reading,

Adam M. Gee, Esq.
agee@zifflaw.com

I was honored to be selected as local trial counsel by Buffalo attorney Mark Cantor for a Chemung County Supreme Court jury trial conducted this week before Judge Robert Mulvey. The case did not settle until the end of the first day of trial when the jury had been selected and after opening statements by both the plaintiff and defense lawyers.

This was a very interesting case involving a young man from Gillett, PA who was severely injured when he was caused to fall 12 feet on to a concrete floor when a defective wooden railing collapsed.

As we all know, railings are there for a reason– they are supposed to keep people from falling from elevated areas. In fact, railings are so important that OSHA regulations require railings to be able to withstand 200 pounds of lateral force. Well guess what? A railing cobbled together with 2X4′s and plain nails is NOT sufficient and does NOT properly protect a worker who is required to work at an elevated height.

In this case, a couple simple carriage bolts costing less than a dollar each would have made all the difference between a healthy young man and a crippled young man who has endured 7 surgeries in an unsuccessful attempt to repair his back, neck, shoulder and knee injuries.

Jury selection took the better part of the day and the jurors represented a wide spectrum of folks from Chemung County: a young school teacher from Elmira, a Burger King Manager who lives in Chemung County but works in Pennsylvania, a young woman who works in the Chemung County Family Court, etc.

As a trial lawyer, I am always impressed and appreciative of the willingness of folks to serve on a jury. I know most folks groan loudly when receiving the Jury Summons and they all hope and pray that they do NOT get selected to sit on the jury. However, I have noticed that during the process of jury selection, a subtle transformation begins to occur– people start to understand the importance of our right to a jury trial and they take their job as jurors very seriously. Jurors hate being dragged away from their jobs and families but they respect the power and privilege of their role in peacefully resolving a dispute between two parties.

The trial was expected to last at least two weeks and many witnesses were scheduled to testify including several doctors from Elmira, NY, and Buffalo, NY, a vocational rehabilitation expert from Syracuse, NY, an OSHA expert from Buffalo. Plaintiff’s medical proof would have established that the injured worker’s lifetime medical care and lost wages (he is totally disabled from his former work as a truck driver) would have exceeded $2M. The defense intended to call its own safety expert and a doctor from Binghamton, NY.

Prior to trial, the parties were nowhere close to settling the case but Judge Mulvey, working with the lawyers and the insurance company representatives, was finally able to get the parties to agree on a settlement for $1,200,000.

Thanks for reading,

Jim Reed
NY and PA Accident Lawyer
jreed@zifflaw.com