Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

What the Doctors in the “Defensive Medicine” Study are Really Saying

A new survey claims that 91 percent of physicians practice defensive medicine. Any doctor who would admit to this practice is ultimately admitting to insurance fraud. Read this blog to learn more.

Tort Reform Should be Voluntary

There is no unbiased evidence that imposing Draconian caps on recovery for people who have been seriously injured by medical malpractice will reduce medical costs. Read this blog to learn more.

MedMal Cases Misrepresented in Virginia's Largest Verdicts

Virginia Lawyers Weekly's Largest Verdicts of 2009 lists the 21 largest verdicts in Virginia in 2009, with 7 listed as Medical Malpractice cases. The numbers listed as the verdicts for these cases only reflect jury award and not the actual award limited by statute.

Another miscarriage of justice in Virginia medical malpractice claims

A Richmond Circuit Court Judge has ruled that a radiology group that allegedly misread studies for years cannot be sued because the statute of limitations had expired.

In this case filed against, Radiology Associates of Richmond, Inc., the patient alleged that the defendants negligently performed and interpreted various radiological studies from December 2002 to October 2005. She alleged that during this time she exhibited symptoms consistent with a tumor in the trigeminal nerve of the brain on the right side of her face.

The Richmond Circuit Court rejected an argument that the "continuous treatment rule" applies to discrete radiologic studies. The court ruled that there was in essence no "assumption of ongoing treatment."

This case likely interprets Virginia law properly however the law is anachronistic and outdated. It is incredible that in this day and age a patient could, relying on years after years of radiologists report, be denied an opportunity for justice when it turns out that all along the patient was harboring a tumor.

That's Virginia tort reform in a nutshell.

You can read the court's opinion here

Wall Street Journal -- Response to Tort Reform

Whenever the Wall Street Journal talks about tort reform, it gets irrational and non-objective. Here's attorney Ben Glass's video response to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial about medical malpractice reform.

Roanoke Times Editorial Critical of Virginia's Silly "Cap"

The Roanoke Times has a terrific editorial that clearly demonstrates all of the reasons why, in 2008, Virginia's"cap" on medical malpractice damages remains downright harmful to the most seriously injured in Virginia. There is no malpracice crisis in Virginia and never has been.

Here's the article on the Virginia Medical Malpractice Cap

Should a Lawsuit Say Exactly What You Are Asking For?

In the state of West Virginia, legislation which would prohibit specific financial demands for damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases from being included by attorneys has drawn support from both trial attorneys and defense counsel.

Earlier in March, the state’s Legislature passed House Bill 4120, which would prohibit such demands in ad damnum clauses. Exceptions are provided by the bill for cases when a specific amount is necessary for obtaining or preserving jurisdiction or otherwise required by an existing statute or rule. A similar law for medical malpractice cases is already in place.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin received the bill on Monday, March 17 after it was unanimously passed by both the House and Senate.

Teresa Toriseva, president of the West Virginia Association for Justice, mentioned two lawsuits filed in 2007 which helped trigger public perception about “frivolous” suits, although both were outside of “the accepted practice of responsible attorneys.”

In one case, a judge in Washington, D.C. filed a $54 million suit against a dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants. The other was a West Virginia suit for $10 million filed against McDonald’s for putting cheese on a hamburger.

According to Toriseva, both received national attention but would not have attracted any attention had the attorneys filing the cases not included large, unjustified financial demands. She says that the legislation would help ensure that the evidence in the case fully supports the damages being sought.

Bob Massie, a Huntington, West Virginia attorney, says that it will help the perception of West Virginia’s judicial system. He says that some attorneys were abusing the practice for the sake of publicity or attention, which harmed the state through the backlash.