New Task Force Aims to Reform California’s Technological Ethical Rules
1/15/19
By: Paige Pembrook On December 5, 2018, the California State Bar Task Force on Access Through Innovation in Legal Services held its first meeting and started a long process to modernize ethical rules that currently inhibit lawyers from fully using innovative technologies and services from non-lawyer businesses. Under the Current Rules of Professional Conduct for…
Court Rules No Coverage For Pa. Law Firm's Malpractice Suit
11/26/18
By: Barry Brownstein An insurer does not have to cover a Pennsylvania law firm in a professional malpractice suit that a client filed after the firm allegedly used privileged information to benefit its attorneys’ side business in a real estate development. The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted Westport Insurance…
Pa. Supreme Court To Reconsider If Settlement Can Trigger Malpractice Suit
11/9/17
By: Barry S. Brownstein The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to reexamine the extent to which a settlement agreement can serve as the basis for a legal malpractice case. The case stems from Eileen McGuire’s efforts to sue a hospital after she was fired in July 2011 in what she claims was retaliation for her…
Does Being Behind Bars Bar a Criminal Malpractice Claim?
10/25/17
By: Sara E. Brochstein It is well established that in a legal malpractice action, a plaintiff has the burden of proving three elements: (1) an attorney-client relationship with the defendant attorney; (2) failure of the attorney to exercise ordinary care, skill, and diligence; and (3) that the attorney’s negligence was the proximate cause of the…
A National “Safe Harbor” to Reduce the Cost of Defensive Medicine?
6/18/13
By: Michael Eshman The Center for American Progress recently proposed a “safe harbor” in medical malpractice litigation to reduce the cost of defensive medicine. The essential component of the “safe harbor” plan is the creation of clinical-practice guidelines on a national level, ideally through physician organizations – such as the American College of Obstetrics and…
11/5/12
By: Mike Flint and Laura Broome In 2005, the tort reform passed by the Georgia legislature included a statute that changed the standard for suing emergency room health care professionals in medical malpractice actions. The statute in essence states that no health care provider who provided emergency medical care in a hospital emergency department, or…
Electronic Medical Records – Saving More Than Trees
6/29/12
By: Scott Rees
A recent Harvard study found medical malpractice claims dropped in Massachusetts after doctors began using electronic records. The study tracked 275 doctors, and of those, 33 were targeted by malpractice claims. Only two of the malpractice claims occurred after those physicians had switched to electronic medical records. This