Medical Malpractice - Medical Justice

Unauthorized Penis Surgery Spawns $9M Judgement. Be Careful Where You Cut!

August 15, 2024October 19, 2020 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

visit our booking page to schedule a consultation – or use the tool shared below. You are probably wondering how any penis surgery might be unauthorized. Read on. Keith Burchell went to Loma Linda University Medical Center in California for evaluation and treatment. Recall that in the 1970s, California implemented among the nation’s toughest tort … Read more

Hoverboarding Dentist Sentenced to 12 Years. Lessons on What Not to Do.

August 15, 2024September 21, 2020 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

schedule a consultation. An Alaska dentist, Dr. Seth Lookhart, was sentenced to 12 years of prison for 46 charges including Medicaid fraud, embezzlement, reckless endangerment and unlawful dental acts. More on that in a minute. His prior claim to fame was extracting a tooth while on a Hoverboard. “[In 2016] he pulled a tooth from … Read more

How to Have Your Day in Court and Keep Your Nest Egg | Top Med-Mal Defense Measures with Super Lawyer Chris Schulte, JD

September 4, 2024November 21, 2019 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Key points in this blog… In the event a doctor must settle a malpractice case, how can he keep his name off the National Practitioner Data Bank? In the event of a runaway verdict, how can a doctor protect his most important assets? When purchasing a malpractice insurance policy, why are consent to settle clauses so … Read more

In Pennsylvania, Supreme Court Decides It’s Possible to Sue Doctor Decade(s) Later for Med Mal

August 15, 2024November 5, 2019 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

In 2003, a patient had liver transplant surgery at UPMC, a Pittsburgh based healthcare system. In a recent 4 to 3 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided to throw out the state law barring medical malpractice lawsuits after 7 years. The case lives on. A little history and background. In 2002, the Pennsylvania legislature, … Read more

What Doctors Get Wrong About Med-Mal Litigation | A Deep Dive with Florida Super Lawyer Chris Schulte, JD

August 15, 2024October 28, 2019 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Subscribe to this podcast! * indicates required Email Address * On this episode of the Medical Liability Minute, Medical Justice Founder and CEO, Jeff Segal, MD, JD, and Florida Super Lawyer, Chris Schulte, JD, discuss what most doctors get wrong about medical malpractice litigation – and what they can do to increase the chances they’ll get their case dismissed … Read more

Helpful Hint to Plaintiff’s Attorneys

August 15, 2024October 23, 2019 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Our organization, Medical Justice, advocates for doctors. We don’t apologize for that. It’s difficult to be a physician and there are thousands of threats that make just taking care of patients hard. We are especially opposed to lawyers filing non-meritorious lawsuits against doctors. Not all lawsuits against physicians lack merit. Some are well founded. Judgments … Read more

Man Bites Dog. Doctor Sues Attorney and Wins $8M in Jury Verdict for Malicious Prosecution.

August 15, 2024August 6, 2018 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

One Arizona doctor had a good ending to a horrible odyssey. The urologist, Dr. Trabucco, was sued by an attorney for medical malpractice. Actually, this attorney did not really argue run-of-the-mill professional negligence. He argued the doctor “committed willful and malicious actions upon [the Plaintiff], eventually resulting in the [Plaintiff’s] death.” Underlying the claim was … Read more

What “A Jury of Your Peers” Really Means

August 15, 2024September 18, 2015 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

We continue with our series of general educational articles penned by one attorney, an MD, JD, giving you a view of the world through a malpractice plaintiff attorney’s eyes. This attorney is a seasoned veteran. The series includes a number of pearls on how to stay out of harm’s way. While I do not necessarily … Read more

Be careful when writing a letter of recommendation

August 15, 2024November 3, 2011 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq.

A Louisiana physician was fired for diverting Demerol from his patients and reporting to work under the influence. Upon the dismissal, a colleague wrote a letter of recommendation for the physician. The discharged physician took his glowing recommendation and found a new job thousands of miles away in Washington State.

About a year into working at this new job, the physician was caught “under the influence.” Further, he was caught after he failed to properly administer anesthesia and his patient fell into a permanent vegetative state, according to court records. The patient’s family filed a malpractice lawsuit against the physician and the medical center where the surgery took place. The case was settled with the physician paying $1 million and the medical center paying $7.5 million.

But the story does not end there.

NEJM: The Numbers Are In: Doctors Are Sued A Lot

August 15, 2024August 18, 2011 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS

Imagine telling your patient the success rate of a surgical procedure you were planning was 20%. year after year. Most patients would hit the door. Unless the only other option – doing nothing – was far worse.

That’s precisely the conclusion drawn from Jena, et al. in a New England Journal of Medicine article released this week – Malpractice Risk According to Physician Specialty. Data was analyzed from a large national carrier covering time period 1991-2005. The researchers analyzed 230,000 physician-years of coverage.

Each year of the study period, 7.4% of all doctors had a malpractice claim. Only 20% of those led to payment – either by settlement or judgment. The majority of claims resulted in zero payment to the plaintiff. Remember, though, the typical claim lingers for about four years before final resolution.

More interesting was breakdown by specialty. Annual risk for being sued:

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