Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that physicians who offer injured patients an apology and fair compensation can help prevent medical malpractice lawsuits. Medical professionals and insurance companies laud the study and argue that it offers a simple, low-cost way to reduce the number of medical malpractice lawsuits, faster resolution of disputes and lowered overall legal costs. But patients injured by the negligence of doctors and other medical professionals should be hesitant to accept a quick settlement and should never do so without consulting their own attorney.

The study, funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation, examined records on over 1,100 malpractice claims against the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS), which in 2001 launched a program urging health care workers to admit mistakes to patients. The program included a procedure for informing patients and their families of mistakes, explaining what steps would be taken in the future to prevent similar mistakes, and offering both an apology and fair compensation if at fault. The designers of the program believed that honesty and transparency would lead to fewer lawsuits.

The study failed to address, however, the nature of the final outcome for injured patients. From the perspective of both physicians and their insurance companies, the UMHS program was a success: The mean costs for liability, including paying attorneys and compensating patients, decreased 60 percent. But were patients fairly compensated for lost wages? What about intangibles like pain and suffering?

Physicians and their insurance companies have a vested interest in settling cases quickly and encouraging injured patients to accept settlement offers that may be far below what their cases are actually worth. What is worse, the pressure to accept such a settlement often comes while the patient and his or her family are under extreme duress. Often times, this amount would not even account for damages that are recoverable by the injured person through the legal process, such as lost earnings, future medical care and pain and suffering. No one should accept a settlement offer immediately after suffering an injury without independent legal counsel, even if the medical staff offers a sincere apology.

If a doctor's negligent treatment has caused injury to you or someone you love, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney like those at Greenberg & Stone, P.A. A knowledgeable medical malpractice lawyer can assess your case and help you fight to receive the compensation you deserve. To learn more, visit us at www.sgglaw.com.

Each year, defective products injure countless consumers in the Sunshine State. No matter what the product, Florida law dictates that manufacturers have a duty to exercise reasonable care - that is, the degree of care that a prudent and competent manufacturer engaged in the same line of business would exercise under similar circumstances - to make sure that their products will not injure people or property. When a manufacturer violates this duty, it may be liable for a person's injuries.

Determining Whether a Product Is Defective

Before a manufacturer may be held liable for injuries caused by one of its products, an injured person must prove that the product was defective. Generally, products may be defective in one of three ways:

• Design Defects: Manufacturers are expected to design products that are safe. If a product does not perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when the product is used in a reasonably foreseeable manner, the product may be defectively designed.
• Manufacturing Defects: Manufacturers must use reasonable care to prevent an unreasonable risk of foreseeable injury, which means that they must exercise due care during production. If a manufacturer fails to adequately test or inspect its products, and nonstandard products are released that then cause injuries, the manufacturer may be held liable.
• Labeling Defects: Otherwise safe products may be dangerous if they are not properly labeled, meaning that the manufacturer fails to warn about the potential risks of using the product. Manufacturers are required to warn consumers of non-obvious defects that might reasonably appear after normal use of a product.

Overall, manufacturers have a duty to produce products that are reasonably safe for their intended uses and other foreseeable uses. If a manufacturer knows that a product presents a particular risk of injury, it may also be responsible for warning users of that risk.

If a defective product has injured you or someone you love, contact an experienced personal injury attorney, like those at Greenberg & Stone, P.A. A knowledgeable personal injury lawyer will investigate all possible avenues of recovery. To learn more, visit us at www.sgglaw.com.