Posted on September 30, 2009 in Medical Malpractice

In a Maryland medical malpractice case, the "Statute of Limitations" governs how long a person has to file a claim or lawsuit. In Maryland, most medical malpractice cases involving adults must be filed within 3 years from the date the injury would have been discovered by a reasonable person. In an adult case, the 3 year deadline may be extended up to 2 additional years , but never more than five years from the date of the injury.

In a Maryland medical malpractice case for a child, the statute of limitations is different. In such a case, the time-frame described above (3-5 years) does not apply until the minor turns 18. Thus, a minor will have at least 3 years after the minor turns 18, and maybe even 2 more years after that.

Calculating the time remaining to file a medical malpractice case according to the Statute of Limitations is something that should only be done by a lawyer experienced in medical malpractice cases. There are nuances in the law that can result in a case being thrown out of court.

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 Posted on September 30, 2009 in Personal Injury

In Maryland, when a person dies wrongfully, certain family members have the right to sue for "Wrongful Death." A Wrongful Death case is a type of personal injury case that usually arises in medical malpractice and other major injury matters such as those involving automobile collisions, product liability, etc.

A Wrongful Death case in Maryland usually is brought by a parent, spouse (only if married, as common law marriages do not count) or child of the dead person. In such a case, the family member may claim non-economic damages such as emotional distress for the loss of their loved one. They also may claim economic losses, such as lost income or loss of household services.

Maryland’s Wrongful Death statute governs all Wrongful Death cases. The statute, which can be found in Section 3-904 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, states as follows:

(a)(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of this subsection, an action under this subtitle shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent, and child of the deceased person.

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 Posted on September 30, 2009 in Medical Malpractice

In 2004, the Maryland legislature enacted a statute that prevents a plaintiff or plaintiff’s lawyer from mentioning to a jury in a medical malpractice case that a doctor apologized or expressed regret, if the purpose of the plaintiff in seeking to tell that to the jury is to prove liability or use it as an admission of the doctor’s liability. The statute, however, does not protect a doctor’s admission of liability or fault that is part of or in addition to an apology or expression of regret.

That statute, which is found in Section 10-920 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, states as follows:

(a) In this section, "health care provider" has the meaning stated in § 3-2A-01 of this article.

(b)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, in a proceeding subject to Title 3, Subtitle 2A of this article or a civil action against a health care provider, an expression of regret or apology made by or on behalf of the health care provider, including an expression of regret or apology made in writing, orally, or by conduct, is inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability or as evidence of an admission against interest.

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 Posted on September 25, 2009 in Family Law

I recently represented a Respondent (the person against whom the protective order has been filed) in a Final Protective Order hearing in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, where the Petitioner alleged that he was placed in fear of serious imminent bodily harm by his wife, the Respondent. When representing the Respondent in such a proceeding it is imperative to know what the other side must prove in order to have a final order granted by the Court and how to gather evidence to refute those allegations. In this case, it was the husband’s burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence the alleged abuse had occurred (see August 16, 2009 blog for specific statutory criteria). By the nature of the protective order process, there often is not enough time in between a client coming in to meet with you to represent them and the Final Hearing date, which can impede obtaining necessary information in a complicated matter. In this situation, although time was an issue, I was able to obtain the 911 calls, the transcript of the Temporary Protective Order hearing, and issue subpoenas to various witnesses, which included friends, family members, police officers, therapists and physicians.

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 Posted on September 24, 2009 in Driving Under the Influence

https://www.silvermanthompson.com/lawyer-attorney-1301140.html https://www.silvermanthompson.com/lawyer-attorney-1301140.html Some of the most difficult Maryland DUI/DWI cases that Maryland DUI/DWI Attorneys are called upon to handle are cases in which the offender has prior convictions for Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Impaired. These people are known as "repeat offenders" and are, as one would expect, generally treated far more harshly than people charged for the first time. State’s Attorney’s typically seek jail terms for people with one or more prior convictions and file enhanced penalties which allow for sentences of up to 3 years instead of just 1 year which is the maximum penalty if the State has not filed the enhanced penalties. This week I kept an offender with four prior convictions out of jail in spite of the fact that the State had a virtually bullet proof case against him. I will explain momentarily but first a few general observations about representing repeat offenders in Maryland.

Judges are generally very open to requests for jail from prosecutors for repeat offenders and are usually only deterred from sentencing someone to prison if significant steps have been taken by the offender to address the underlying alcohol problem so the court can be confident that the defendant will not re-offend. Judges often require home detention monitoring, long term inpatient treatment, half way houses, frequent testing for alcohol and drug use and in some extreme cases, 24/7 monitoring of the person to ensure that he or she is not drinking. This can be done now by fitting a person with an ankle bracelet that monitors the person’s sweat for the presence of alcohol. For each subsequent offense a Maryland DUI/DWI Attorney must require the client to take more and more elaborate measures to put him or her in a position where the attorney can argue to the court that a jail sentence is not appropriate and have that argument be taken seriously by the court.

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 Posted on September 22, 2009 in Medical Malpractice

This month, Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White attorneys Andrew G. Slutkin and Jamison G. White filed a medical malpractice case in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County against Genesis Brightwood Center, a nursing home and rehabilitation facility on Falls Road in Baltimore. The case is on behalf of an elderly women who was admitted to Brightwood Center after a double knee replacement. During the admission to Brightwood, while an aide was getting her dressed in her room she was caused to fall to the ground. When she struck the ground, the woman landed on both knees, which injured both knees and split open the surgical incision of the left knee causing it to become infected due to contamination with bacteria. As a result of the fall and continuing infection of her left knee, over the next few months the woman was readmitted to the hospital three times for complications from the infection. These three readmissions caused substantially more rehabilitation then otherwise would have been necessary, including three admissions to other rehabilitation facilities. As a result of the malpractice, the woman also has suffered extreme pain, suffering and emotional distress from the fall. She also has permanent left knee pain and requires antibiotics for life.

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 Posted on September 17, 2009 in Medical Malpractice

An Illinois woman has died six days after a surgical fire during an operation at a hospital. The hospital has acknowledged in a statement that the fire happened but won’t offer specifics. The medical examiner’s office says the woman died from complications of thermal burns, and her death is listed as accidental. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.

As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I have successfully handled surgical fire and burn cases. For example, one was a case involving a fire during surgery where a man was severely burned and another involved a severe thermal burn that took place during surgery. Fires and unintended burns during surgery are completely preventable and perfect examples of malpractice. Surgeons and hospitals have known for decades how to prevent operating room fires and burns. Usually, it’s a simple as not using 100% oxygen, draping a patient properly or making sure that flammable skin prep solutions dry before using an electric cautery device. When a surgeon uses excessive oxygen or a patient is not properly draped, things that normally do not catch fire such as surgical drapes, skin and hair, can catch fire in an oxygen rich environment. In fact, I still have a video showing the difference between how surgical drapes catch fire normally (very slowly) compared to an oxygen rich environment (almost explosive). It’s shocking. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here.

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 Posted on September 14, 2009 in Personal Injury

Dr. Brian Edgar Emery, a Howard County physician, was killed on Thursday evening when the vehicle he was driving was struck from the rear by another vehicle and pushed into oncoming traffic. Dr. Emery was stopped on Route 32 near the Howard-Carrol County border waiting to make a left turn when his vehicle was hit from behind by a van being driven by Thomas Donald Cory. A recent, Baltimore Sun Article, reported on this tragic accident which occurred on a dangerous stretch of road in Howard County. Earlier this year a mother and child were killed on the same stretch of road.

A follow-up article in today’s Baltimore Sun discusses plans to repave and restripe that section of Route 32 in an attempt to make the road safer. The County’s desire to take immediate action to repair this road is indicative of just how dangerous this section of roadway is. County Executive, Ken Ullman, Governor O’Malley and various State Highway Officials have been working to take steps to make this section of road safer.

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 Posted on September 11, 2009 in Family Law

A common inquiry for Maryland divorce lawyers is how child support is calculated with questions such as, is it based on the custody arrangement, the amount of income of the parties, are the parent’s expenses taken into consideration, and what about expenses associated with the child? The answer, for the most part is all of the above, with the exception of the parent’s expenses, which are generally not taken into consideration unless it is an above the child support guidelines case. The Maryland legislature has enacted guidelines which provide a standard formula for calculating child support. The Maryland Code, Family Law § 12-204 provides that child support shall be calculated based on the parties combined adjusted actual income combined with the number of children the parties share. Not only do the guidelines take into account the parties’ gross income (not net income), but also any health insurance costs the parties are paying for the child or the children, costs of work-related child care either party may be paying for the child or the children, extraordinary medical expenses paid for the child or the children, and existing prior child support obligations.

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 Posted on September 10, 2009 in Business Counseling, Litigation & Transactions

The Washington Post has just published a fascinating article about health insurers who improperly cancel health insurance policies to save money once their insureds got sick. What a outrageous thing for an insurer to do. The article reports large verdicts against these health insurers, which are totally appropriate. With one such insurer, the employees actually received bonuses for cancelling such policies. What a disgrace. A copy of the article regarding can be found here. You will need to quickly register to view the article but it is worth it.

Over the years, I have successfully handled a number of breach of contract cases, which is really the main claim in such cases. In such a case, extensive pretrial discovery is necessary to get to the root of why these policies are cancelled. Having an understanding of medical issues also is very helpful.

Amazingly, some health insurers don’t seem to understand that people buy their policy to protect themselves form catastrophic medical bills and, after these people have paid premiums for years, they expect that the insurer will actually pay those bills if necessary. Amazing.

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