Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Friends and family members often ask "hey, what's tort reform? Following I will attempt to answer this question about a legal topic that is more important to our society than most of us realize.

What Is A Tort?

However, before discussing tort reform I believe it is best to explain what we mean by "tort". Contrary to popular belief, the term tort (as used in the legal World) does not refer to a cake or other form of delicious pastry. It comes from English Common Law and it refers to the breach of a civil duty by an individual (or a corporation) to another person. Such civic duty is different from a contractual or an equitable duty: contractual duties are duties arising from an agreement reached by the parties. Equitable duties are those springing from rights a person may have.

While many wrongful acts amount to both torts and crimes, they are different: a tort is typically dealt with by the victim filing a lawsuit against the wrongdoer, who is known as the tortfeasor. A crime, on the other hand, is dealt with by the state prosecuting the accused. One more important difference: while the remedy for a crime is the sentencing of the accused to death or to a prison term, the remedy for a tortious act is typically money damages.

Finally, torts come from three different kinds of actions:

1. Negligent actions. Most lawsuits are based on negligence:

a. Car, motorcycle and truck accident cases;

b. Slip or trip and fall cases;

c. Medical malpractice cases;

d. Product liability or defective products cases;

e. Pharmacy error cases;

f. Negligent security cases;

g. Amusement park accident cases;

2. Intentional acts:

a. Assault;

b. Battery;

c. False Imprisonment;

d. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress;

e. Fraud.

3. Quasi-torts or liability torts. These can be categorized as statutory violations. Among others they include:

a. Violation of consumer protection laws;

b. Worker's compensation cases;

c. Violations of anti-discrimination laws.

For the purposes of this post, we will only deal with torts caused by negligent acts.

Continue reading "What is Tort Reform?" »

A Weston plastic surgery clinic that has allegedly caused the death of two patients is now being sued by the family of the second victim, according to BrowardPalm Beach.com.

Nip & Tuck Surgeries Gone Wrong

Kellee J. Lee-Howard, mother of six and wife to James Howard, had a liposuction procedure performed at Alyne Medical Rejuvenation on February 23rd, 2010 and died the following day of polydrug toxicity because of the clinic's failure to properly administer lidocaine, according to her husband and his lawyers.

A second patient died on June 11 from a procedure performed at Alyne: Maria Shortall, a 38 year old mother of two stopped breathing halfway through her liposuction. She was subsequently rushed to a hospital and declared dead on arrival.

Continue reading "Aesthetic Surgery Victim's Family Sues Clinic" »

The Washington Post has recently revealed that according to the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare 40 wrong-site surgeries happen every week in the United States.

Amputating The Wrong Leg

Mistakes include amputating the wrong leg, operating on the wrong patient or in lay terms, performing the wrong surgery. Surgeon Dennis O'Leary says that wrong site surgery may be prevented by checking things as simple as that the right patient is on the operating table or that an X-ray isn't flipped....

With the cooperation of 8 hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, the Commission studied their operating protocols and found that the risk of wrong-site surgeries happening increased with problems within the facilities' preoperative procedures and scheduling processes, as well as ineffective communication and distractions in the operating rooms. The study showed that by establishing redundant verification procedures in the preoperative rooms the risk of wrong-site surgeries decreased from 52% to 19% therefore increasing patient safety.

Continue reading "Too Many Wrong Site Surgeries Every Week In The United States" »