Even though a large percentage of my practice is devoted to NY and PA medical malpractice cases, I have tremendous respect for the medical profession.  In fact, three of my college roommates and one of my best friends now are doctors.  I know most doctors are intelligent, compassionate and dedicated to good patient care.  Of course, like every profession, there are bad apples in the medical field who give a bad name to all the good doctors out there. 

But whether good doctor or bad doctor, an almost universal truth in the medical profession is that doctors dislike lawyers.  I think the reasons for this are many– some legitimate and some not– but that will have to be a subject for another post.   This post is devoted to a recent NY case that I think is HORRIBLE LAW and that I KNOW is going to create further friction between doctors and lawyers.  There is no doubt in my mind that this case will result in great abuse by insurance companies and their defense lawyers….

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Hallelujah!  It’s about time!  Traditionally, N.Y. has been one of the few states in the United States that did NOT permit a “bad faith” claim against an insurance carrier except under VERY limited circumstances.  A recent N.Y. Court of Appeals case (Bi-Economy Market Inc. v. Harleysville Insurance Company)  changed all that in a decision that is a HUGE benefit to N.Y. consumers.

First, let’s talk about what is “bad faith”?  That is when an insurance company puts its own interests above that of its own customers by failing to act reasonably in settling a claim that has been brought against its own customer.  That’s why we buy insurance, right?  We buy insurance so if someone sues us, our insurance company will take care of it so our personal assets (our house, cars, bank accounts, etc.) are not exposed to risk. 

Here’s an example of a typical bad faith scenario:  Joe Blow buys a car insurance policy that has liability limits of $300,000.  Joe has too much to drink at an office Christmas party and causes a bad accident where a young woman is very badly injured.  The lawyer for the injured woman says to Joe’s insurance company, “we will accept $300,000 in settlement of this claim”.  By settling for this amount, Joe would be totally off the hook.  But Joe’s insurance company thinks they can save some money so they refuse to settle for the policy limits of $300,000.  The insurance company refuses even after being presented with tons of proof that the young woman’s claim is worth way more than $300,000.  The insurance company refuses even though they know that by settling now, Joe would be totally off the hook.  So the case goes to trial and a jury returns a verdict of $750,000.  The insurance company pays their $300,000 and guess who is on the hook for the other $450,000?  Yup, poor Joe.  And all because the insurance company was trying to save their money rather than doing what was right for Joe.

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Hopefully, we all learn from our mistakes……But having handled hundreds of NY and PA accident cases over 20+ years, one of the sad things you learn is that the same types of accidents tend to repeat themselves over and over again– drunk drivers, speeding tractor trailers, inattentive drivers playing with their radio rather than the road ahead, etc. 

A story today in the Elmira Star-Gazette about two fatal accidents, one on Rt. 86 near Bath, NY and the other on Rt. 13 near Ithaca, NY, illustrate the point regarding two common types of car accidents:  (1)  Exiting a Broken Down Car on the Highway and (2)  Accidents In Dangerous Areas. Read the rest…

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As I recommended in my recent post on insurance adjusters and no-fault insurance, I urge you to take caution when dealing with folks representing the other side in any accident case. Workers’ Comp. claimants are frequently approached by investigators for the insurance company.

We’ve had clients tell us that they’ve answered the door to find a fellow with his thumbs hitched in the straps of overalls and chewing on a piece of hay who announced that he was an investigator for the insurance company. This fellow said something to the effect that he didn’t understand why the insurance company was giving them such a hard time about their case and that he would love to sit down with a glass of lemonade and talk about it. Read the rest…

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maybe.  Maybe not.  The point is that you should NEVER, EVER take your legal advice from the other driver’s insurance company.  Remember, it’s their JOB to pay you NOTHING or as LITTLE as possible. 

Many times, the insurance adjuster will say things like “sorry but you don’t have a serious injury as required under N.Y. law but because we feel bad about what happened to you, we are willing to pay you $500″. 

This is wrong, improper and even illegal for this adjuster to do this.  First, he’s not a lawyer and surely not your lawyer so it’s absolutely improper for him to be giving legal advice to you.  Second, most often it is way too early to tell whether you will have a serious injury or not.  Many people don’t know the full extent of their injuries for months after a car crash.  Third, do you REALLY believe they are paying you $500 because they feel bad?  No way.  They are paying you $500 because they want your signature on a Release.  A Release is a legally binding document that says you are giving up ALL rights (both past and future) in exchange for the money.  Once you sign off, you are done forever even if you need surgery two months later or start to have problems that disable you from work forever. 

Bottom line– you need YOUR OWN attorney to give you proper advice about whether you should settle your case or not. 

If you are in doubt about whether you should settle your case or not, feel free to E-mail us at info@ziffflaw.com or call us at 800-ZIFFLAW and we will tell you whether what you are being offered is fair or not.  Don’t worry, if you call or E-mail us you are not obligated to hire us but we will help you figure out whether the insurance company is trying to take advantage of you or not.

Thanks for reading,

Jim
_________________________________________
James B. Reed, Esq.
Personal Injury & Malpractice Attorney
Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden & Mustico, LLP
303 William St., Elmira, NY 14902
Tel. (607) 733-8866  Fax. (607) 732-6062
Toll Free 1-800-943-3529
mailto:jreed@zifflaw.com     http://www.zifflaw.com 

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Sometimes I am dense. I’ve been reading blogs for years (and now blogging myself), but I never stopped to explain to those folks who may be new to blogging what a “blog” is and why subscribing to blogs can be a great idea.  As someone who may have stumbled on to this blog via a search engine search or a link from another site and who may not really understand what all this “blogging stuff” is all about, I thought it would make sense to briefly explain what blogs are and how you can subscribe to a blog to bring interesting information to you (instead of you having to go out and search for info).

As someone who loves to “play” with new technology (just ask my long-suffering wife!), I sometimes forget that other folks barely tolerate or even hate new technology (folks like my Mom, whose VCR has been flashing 12:00 for 3 years.)

But what I have found is that even these technology-haters will embrace new technology when it serves an interest or need in their lives. So I thought I would use this article to explain why I think everyone can benefit by reading blogs on topics that interest YOU. And trust me, there are blogs on virtually every topic you can imagine from the most exotic hobbies, to travel, to professions, to sports, to technology, etc. If you have an interest, there is bound to be at least one and maybe hundreds of blogs that discuss that interest in great detail.

Put most simply, a “blog” is simply a great way to have information delivered directly to you AND, if you wish, for you to be able to send your comments, questions or ideas back to the blog author.

The good news about the automatic delivery of blog articles is that you don’t have to go out and hunt down information– once you have subscribed to a blog (I will explain how easy it is to subscribe to blogs below), new information is automatically sent to you whenever the blog author writes a new article. That means no more having to go back to a website you enjoyed to see if they have added any new information since the last time you visited– you just sit back and let the new stuff be delivered to you.

As for being able to add your own comments to the blog: This lets you share in the conversation about the topic with both the blog author and the blog readers. The two-way communication between the author and readers can be very interesting and thought provoking. Commenting is totally optional and if you just want to be a silent blog reader you can easily do so for as long as you want without ever posting a comment.

So how do you subscribe to a blog? Let’s use mine as an example. If you like what you are reading here and have an interest in topics involving New York law, you can easily subscribe to my blog several different ways:

The easiest way is to just sign up here and we will automatically send new posts to your email address.

Another easy but more sophisticated way to subscribe is to use something called an “RSS Reader”. This is software that goes out and automatically grabs the posts from any blogs you have subscribed to and pulls them back on to your computer in one convenient location for your reading pleasure. If you already have an RSS Reader installed on your computer, you can just hit the Subscribe button on our blog.

If you do not have an RSS Reader, you can download a great FREE RSS Reader at: www.google.com/reader.  Google’s Reader is great and the price can’t be beat!

Want to learn more about blogs? You can download a cute and highly informative video about them by going to http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs.  They also have a great explanation of RSS here.

Happy blog reading!

Jim
_________________________________________
James B. Reed, Esq.
Personal Injury & Malpractice Attorney
Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden & Mustico, LLP
303 William St., Elmira, NY 14902
Tel. (607) 733-8866  Fax. (607) 732-6062
Toll Free 1-800-943-3529
mailto:jreed@zifflaw.com     http://www.zifflaw.com 

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For my fellow NY accident attorney readers, we all know that answering the defense lawyer’s Demand for Bill of Particulars is a necessary evil.  Necessary because we are required to do it and evil because a trial judge will generally limit your proof at trial to your answers to the defendant’s demand.  Accordingly, for those questions you are required to answer, it is important that your answers be as complete as possible.  However, because a BOP Response is a pleading and responses are admissible at trial, you don’t want to answer any more questions than are legally required.  That’s where this practice tip comes in.  My advice is that you review the BOP demands carefully and ONLY answer those BOP demands that are appropriate and OBJECT to any BOP demands that are inappropriate.

I have noticed a recent trend with defense lawyers asking more and more BOP questions that are clearly objectionable.

I think alot of this may be due to the fact that some plaintiff’s lawyers haven’t bothered to read CPLR §3043 which specifies just 9 areas of inquiry in a NY personal injury action.  That’s right, just 9 areas of inquiry.  So the next time you get a BOP Demand that goes outside these 9 areas of inquiry, you can reply:  Improper Demand, beyond the scope of CPLR §3043.

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The doctors’ lobbies and the Insurance companies forced to pay malpractice claims have been trying to for years to convince people that there is a medical malpractice crisis.  They have been trying to convince the public that doctors are fleeing states without malpractice caps.  We have been telling everyone that will listen that this is a bunch of bunk.  Now we have proof.

In a recent announcement at the Philadephia College of Physicians, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has announced that the medical malpractice crisis is over.  In support of this announcement, he cited to the fact that Medical Malpractice insurance rates are going down, as the two largest insurers in Pennsylvania have filed for rate decreases, and one is paying a dividend back to doctors.  Governor Rendell also revealed that 57 newly licensed entities are now selling medical malpractice insurance in Pennsylvania.  This healthy competition will result in choice and cost savings for doctors.  Pennsylvania recently added a requirement that Plaintiff’s attorneys certify that they have had a doctor review the case and that there is a good faith basis to believe malpractice has occurred, which is essentially the same system New York has had for years.  In Pennsylvania, this common sense requirement has resulted in a 38% decrease in the number of malpractice claims filed.  Contrary to the myths perpetuated by insurance companies and doctors’ organizations, the number of doctors in Pennsylvania continues to rise.

On a similar note, Workers Compensation insurers in Pennsylvania are likely to decrease by some 10% in the coming year.

Governor Rendell’s announcement proves that the doctors’ lobbies and insurance companies have been doing nothing more than fear mongering.  I hate to say I told you so, but…

Thanks for reading,

Adam M. Gee, Esq.

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Just read a great post by Eric Turkewitz, How Medical Malpractice Gets Covered Up, that discusses an anonymous blog post by an obstetrical nurse who is baring the truth about how malpractice is actively covered up and how medical providers are pressured to cover one another’s butts by not accurately charting what is REALLY going on in a patient’s care.  Here’s a clip from the post:

Ever wonder how malpractice gets covered up or why it doesn’t appear in the medical records? Well, an anonymous obstetrical nurse from Pennsylvania opened that little door for us today.

Writing at the blog At Your Cervix (perhaps one of the most creative medical blog names around), she writes how she was reprimanded for documenting in the medical chart the name of a covering doctor that had reviewed the external fetal monitor strip. You read that right: Folks were actually mad at her for being accurate with her notes and writing down in the chart who had reviewed important information regarding the patient.

When I first started handling medical malpractice cases, I was naive enough to believe that no one would ever intentionally alter medical records. Sad to say it occurs quite frequently.

A recent post from my friend, Jim Carroll, a medical malpractice attorney from Athens, PA, highlighted a recent case of altered records from Wilkes-Barre, PA:

A doctor accused of failing to tell a patient she had cancer is now being accused of altering medical records in the case to try to cover up his error. Court papers say Dr. Feroz A. Sheikh altered the records of Margaret Radginski after she filed suit against him late last year. The doctor is accused of altering his records to show that he told his patient that she had cancer a year before the date that he truly told her that she had cancer.

Bad, bad, bad. Why can’t people just play by the rules and not cheat?  Well, unfortunately, the answer is that the stakes are so high, both from an economic and career perspective, that medical providers feel the need to cheat to cover their butts at the expense of the truth and their own patients.  Sad but true…

Think this is an exaggeration?  How about a recent Harvard study that found that 46% of doctors were aware a serious medical error that they did NOT report that error to authorities.

Hmmmm, and people wonder why we talk about the Medical Conspiracy of Silence….

Thanks for reading,

Jim Reed
jreed@zifflaw.com

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I mentioned “consequential injuries” in my recent post on why you need representation in your Workers’ Comp. case.  A consequential injury is an injury that occurs as a consequence of the original work related injury.  In other words, the consequential injury is a new and separate injury that is caused by the original injury.
For example, let’s say someone develops tendonitis in one arm because of work.  The injury to that arm, the bad arm, is covered by comp because that injury was caused by work.  But let’s say that person continues to work and uses the uninjured arm, the good arm, more so as to rest the bad arm. After a period of time, that person begins having problems with the previously uninjured good arm because of overuse. The overuse injury to the previously uninjured arm is a consequential injury and it too is covered by comp.   Hope that makes sense: )

Consequential injuries come in many varieties from the obvious to subtle. For instance, consequential depression is not at all uncommon. Some of our clients suffer consequential depression because of they are depressed by having to deal with their disability, their pain, and the economic problems often caused by being out of work for long periods of time.

A recent study of chronic pain patients revealed that people in chronic pain demonstrate huge differences in brain activity on brain scans as compared to people who do not have chronic pain. This difference in brain activity may explain why persons with chronic pain have a higher incidence of depression and other problems.  Part of the take away of that study is that if you have chronic pain and you’re experiencing depression, it’s not your fault. It’s a chemical consequence of your original injury and you need help. I would suggest that you need medical and legal help.

Consequential injuries make things more difficult for folks representing themselves for two reasons: 1) you have another injury (pretty much speaks for itself); and 2) a consequential injury raises the ante for the insurance company. As I have said, insurance companies don’t make money by writing checks. Insurance companies make money by denying or delaying your care.

If you have a work related injury, don’t go it alone.  Please come back for my next post on Workers’ Comp. in which I will discuss talking with investigators and other pitfalls.

Thanks for reading,

Jim
___________________________________
James B. Reed
NY & PA Injury & Malpractice Attorney
Ziff Law Firm
303 William Street
Elmira, NY  14902
(607)733-8866
mailto:jreed@zifflaw.com
http://www. zifflaw.com

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