A medical malpractice case is typically defended with the following 5 important defenses:

(1) We didn’t do it, but…

(2) If we did it, it was an acceptable risk,

(3) However, if we did it, and it wasn’t an acceptable risk, then the patient wasn’t hurt by it, but…

(4) If the patient was hurt, he wasn’t hurt that badly,and finally,

(5) We didn’t do it, but even if we did, the patient also contributed too.

It is the extremely rare case where the defense admits causing injury and the extent of injury. Those cases are settled quickly without ever going to trial.

The majority of medical malpractice cases in New York are settled prior to trial. Of the remaining 5-10% that are not settled, the physician wins the majority of them at trial. Defense counsel have gotten their clients off the hook using the defenses listed above.

Obviously, the list above is overly simplistic, but it’s easy to see how it applies in any malpractice case.

Jimmy D’Victim arrives in my office claiming that hernia surgery caused a perforation in his colon. The defense will quicly claim that (1) Jimmy needed the surgery, (2) That a perforation is a known recognized risk of the procedure, (3) That there is no real injury, (4) That if there is an injury it’s minimal, and (5) That he caused all of his own problems because he moved during surgery or failed to follow the doctor’s instructions before, during and after surgery.

Is it any wonder that most malpractice cases are won by the defense?

Attorney Oginski has been in practice for over 17 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in the State of New York. Having his own law firm, he is able to provide the utmost in personalized, individualized attention to each and every client. In our office, a client is not a file number. Client’s are always treated with the respect they deserve and expect from a professional. Mr. Oginski is always aware of every aspect of a client’s case from start to finish.

Gerry represents injured people in injury cases and medical malpractice matters in Brooklyn, Queens, New York City, the Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. You can reach him at http://www.oginski-law.com, or 516-487-8207. All inquiries are free and totally confidential.

Many people who choose to get degrees as paralegals may be wondering how much they are worth in the job market.

A paralegal with a Bachelor’s degree can earn as much as $60,000/year if working in a large urban area or for the federal government. This is an income well above the national average.

The largest employers of paralegals tend to be private law firms. Paralegals, however, are being hired in places like banks, corporations, insurance companies, and real estate firms. Because there is an increase in these type places hiring paralegals, the employment opportunities are increasing for paralegals.

Those paralegals that choose areas like bankruptcy and product liability for their specialty will have a large number of employment opportunities. The demand for paralegals will continue to increase as large agencies and corporations depend on paralegals with greater and more important responsibilities. The paralegal profession is unwavering and only increases in demand now that corporations and agencies want paralegals working inhouse and don’t want to need to bring them in.

As we have mentioned, the demand for paralegals has been predicted to grow, both in the public and private sectors. Earning your online certificate program to become a paralegal is not only worth all your time, but it will also prove to be a great and large investment for your future. Growth is expected in this field over the next ten years, as a wider variety of businesses will hire paralegals. Also, the chance of being outsourced is small in this profession and it is not badly affected by economic downturns.

“You Must Read this Book”

Terry Dashner…………………Faith Fellowship Church in Broken Arrow, OK 74013

As you know I have the utmost respect for Dr. D. James Kennedy. I listen to what he says. His voice helps direct America back to her founding heritageJesus Christ. I like that.

The other day I sent $30 to help support his radio and TV ministry. What I received in return is beyond good. It is really good. In response to the small gift I gave, I was sent former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama Judge Roy Moore’s new book entitled, So Help Me God.

Wow! At a time in my life when I thought that all good books had already been written and read by me, a book like this falls into my hands. Talk about inspiring, this read is a must read for anyone who stands on principle. Whether or not one agrees with Moore’s politics, this man is a man of principle, and that is inspiring. I’d like to highlight some of his thoughts made public in this wonderful book.

The book is published by Broadman & Holman Publishers in Nashville, TN and it carries the subtitle, The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and The Battle For Religious Freedom.

Listen to this: “The same year I was busy creating the carved plaque of the Ten Commandments, the United States Supreme Court was busy taking them of the wall of a Kentucky schoolhouse. The court in Stone v. Graham stated:

“‘The Ten Commandments are undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faith, and no legislative recitation of a supposed secular purpose can blind us to that fact…If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the school children to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.’

“How could the Supreme Court of the United States draw such a ridiculous conclusion? Surely judges and justices should regard laws against killing, adultery, stealing, lying, and disregard of parental authority as desirable rules. And certainly a callous disregard of God’s law today has fostered an atmosphere in which murder, rape, robbery, and all forms of disobedience of authority are more commonplace in public schools than they were in 1980.

“The Ten Commandments are not only a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, as the Supreme Court stated in Stone v. Graham. They are God’s revealed, divine law and the basis on which our morality depends…In the Farewell Address, George Washington, at the conclusion of his second tern as our nation’s first president, reminded the people that virtue or morality is important to the welfare of our nation, and that attempts to destroy or take lightly this foundation of popular government would be detrimental to the country. He stated, ‘Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government…Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.’

“President Washington implied that our institutions of learning (schools) should promote the teaching of virtue or morality. Where can that virtue be found? In God’s law, the Ten Commandments!…the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment [Article III of the Northwest Ordinance stated that]…Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.’”

The “wall of separation” of church and state for America has become, according to Mr. Moore, a separation between God and American government, and that is not good. It was not the intent of the founding fathers.

Then why do we scurry to remove the sibilance of God’s law from federal properties? It started years ago in our Nation’s highest courtthe United States Supreme Court. A group of 9 have through the years ruled in opposition to our founding father’s original intent for this nationone nation under the Supreme Law of the Universe, God’s law. And who has been the driving force since WWI to make sure that we “red state heathens” are in compliance? You guessed it. It is the ACLU.

One day soon, people of this nation that have remained silent in the face of secularism and the partisan agenda of the ACLU will arise from their sleep and begin to counter the juggernaut of the ACLU. When that happens, America will awaken to another historical “Great Awakening” where the knowledge of God will flow from every fabric of its sacred halls of justice and education like the waters of the mountain tops flow to the seas.

I would encourage you to read this wonderful book and throw your prayerful support behind this man of principle. As I read about his early years at West Point where he learned as an underclassman to endure intimidation, I was encouraged and inspired. He spoke eloquently about the ridicule, while tough at the time nevertheless, prepared him for Viet Nam and his life’s call that has become a lone stand of principle on God’s law in spite of the intimidation and ridicule of the high courts and the ACLU. Although Mr. Moore is a few years older than I, I too remember the twisted-moral indifference of our troops in Viet Nam. I, too, remember and experienced the fallout of a nation that had lost its moral compass through the 1960s and early 1970s. Those were difficult times, especially in the military. I pray that we never fall back to those days.

I pray that America will keep pressing the point and praying together for the good of this nation. America is great because she is good. If she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. I wish I had said those words. Someone much smarter than I who was not even an American citizen is credited with saying those words when America was young. I would add. America is only good when she honors God’s law above all things, even her Constitution law.

Keep the faith America. Stay the course, please. Jesus one day soon right all the wrongs.

Pastor T.

Faith Fellowship Church
PO Box 1586
Broken Arrow, OK 74013

918-451-0270
tdash0355@netzero.com (devotional list sign up)

About the Author

Pastor, retired police officer, veteran of the United States Navy and father of 3 grown children.

Businesses routinely maintain copies of correspondence and memos. Far to often, however, they do not extend this practice to email correspondence. Email correspondence is no different then your normal paperwork. You must keep copies of all of it to protect your business in any litigation.

Currently, only banks and broker-dealers are obliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents for three years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Beginning July 2006, all public companies will also be required to do so under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Notwithstanding these laws, your custom and practice should be to maintain copies of all email correspondence. Email is considered evidence and courts are hammering businesses that do not maintain email records. Judges are often ruling that the failure to maintain and produce email records means the business in question is hiding key evidence.

In the recent Perelman v. Morgan Stanley litigation, a judge’s ruling on the failure of Morgan Stanley to produce email was key factor in the issuance of a $1.45 billion verdict. Based on the failure to produce email records, Judge Elizabeth Maass issued a pretrial ruling that effectively found Morgan Stanley conspired to defraud Perelman in a 1998 deal. Morgan Stanley is not the only business defendant to have this problem.

In the summer of 2004, UBS bank was found by a judge to have “willfully destroyed” email evidence in a discrimination case. UBS was ordered to pay costs and a jury returned a $29 million verdict.

Email Policy

To protect your business, you must have a procedure in place to maintain email communications generated through the business. Failure to keep these records can lead to rulings in litigation that your business willfully destroyed evidence. If this occurs, the judge may issue significant monetary sanctions, automatically find you liable or take other harsh steps that assure a victory for the Plaintiff. As if such developments are not bad enough, there exists a second risk associated with email communications.

Maintaining email communications, however, can have a downside. The problem arises, of course, when a communication contains statements that are damaging to your business. Yes, the proverbial catch-22 situation.

To avoid such disasters, your business must develop a clear policy on email communications and train all employees to comply with that policy. Employees must understand the business environment is not one in which jokes, flippant remarks and so on should be made in email communications.

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a San Diego business law firm in San Diego, California.

Medical malpractice is one of the most commonly recognized forms of malpractice. It is a suit issued by the client or patient against the medical practitioner for causing injury, damage or loss by providing improper or negligent treatment. This happens when the skilled professional in the filed of medicine fails in his or her duty of ensuring a standard of care expected by the patient. As a result, the doctors, nurses and hospital technicians are closely scrutinized by the client or patient taking their services.

A medical professional is given license to practice in a state based on his or her education, experience and competence to act as a skilled professional in the field of medicine. He or she as a professional may be well known for his or her competence, but can never guarantee completely the services rendered. This is because there is always an element of doubt, risk and chance errors inherent in the health care profession. Hence when a patient does not respond to the medical treatment he or she is undergoing, the situation need not necessarily be termed as medical malpractice.

A lawsuit is issued for malpractice only when it is found that the damage or injury to the patient resulted from the negligence caused by the medical professional (including the doctor) in diagnosis, surgery or treatments.

Before rendering any treatment, the medical professionals procure an individual agreement or informed consent from the patient or client. This document informs the patient about the proposed medical treatments, surgery or other alternative treatment procedures and the possible side effects and potential risks involved. It also gives the doctors or medical professionals full access to the patient’s personal details and facts which are necessary for treatment. But if the patient or his or her members perceive that the doctor or the medical professionals failed in their duty to ensure the standard of care that other medical professionals would have given in a similar circumstance, they can seek legal help. Medical malpractice in legal terms is negligence on the part of the medical professional, and so the attorney of the client, with the expert opinion, takes necessary action for recovery of damages.

Malpractice provides detailed information about malpractice, legal malpractice and more. Malpractice is affiliated with Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyers.