Most Common Defenses in Medical Malpractice Cases
Gary Silverstein
July 12, 2015
Judgment Call a Common Defense
Judgment Call a Common Defense
In your medical malpractice trial in New York, where there are many details and facts that the jury needs to know and consider, should your lawyer give a two-hour opening argument at the beginning of the trial?
You have suffered a significant fracture of the femur in an accident, which is the biggest bone in the body, and you have filed a personal injury case to claim compensation. Your case has come all the way to trial, and now during jury selection, one of the jurors tells your lawyer that he has suffered the same type of fracture, but his injuries were not permanent.
Some people like to keep a diary, a log, or a journal, and they note down their innermost or private thoughts in it. They write things that motivate them or things that are troubling them that nobody else sees. Now, suppose you keep such a diary, and during the course of your medical malpractice lawsuit, you windup recording details about your injuries and how they have affected you.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a major leading cause of death in New York and around the world. Approximately 27 million people suffer from COPD in the United States alone, with an estimated 210 million afflicted with it worldwide. Symptoms include breathing difficulty due to airway obstruction, shortness of breath and frequent coughing. Smoking is a leading cause of the disease.
You feel you have been injured due to the negligence of your doctor or because your doctor violated the basis standards of good and accepted medical care. Now you have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, and during the trial, your attorney wants to give a press conference regarding your case. Can he do that, and why? The answer is that your attorney has every right to call a press conference.
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Before the trial takes place, how much does the trial judge know about your particular personal injury case?
You might know that no attorney in New York can ever guarantee a particular result or outcome of your case. However, there are so many other types of guarantees that a lawyer can make. For instance, it would be wonderful if a lawyer in his marketing message guarantees that despite his firm’s two hundred years of combined experience, it will not make any difference, if the defense refuses to negotiate and forces them to go to trial. What does this even mean?
Pushing the buttons of a medical expert could serve the attorney well at a medical malpractice trial, but there are also chances that this strategy might misfire.
