John Edwards--Malpractice attorney

[quote=maureeno]people look askance at trial lawyers
until they need one

I believe some tort reform is important
in a overhaul of our health care system
but will have no difficulty voting for the Kerry/Ewards ticket......[quote]


Edwards has fought tort reform vigorously. Tort reform alone will not fix the mess that health care is in but it is HUGE first step. Unfortunately it is step that Edwards has refused to take. I can not believe that he will ever change his mind if he should win. He does represent one of the ills that do plague us.

No, you didn't understand.

This thread is about lawsuits.

Do you think a person whose life is threatened because she was denied what she paid for has the right to sue?
THAT is the point.
The insurance company advertises top quality healthcare with decisions by your doctor.
They denied a mammogram for a woman with breast cancer.

IS THAT OK?

As we all know, nurses are rarely sued.

And in my experience, most doctors who lose malpractice cases are guilty of malpractice..

Sorry to be off topic, but would it be inappropriate to ask the name of the insurance company? Curiosity question.

Linda

Get a load of this guy, ABC's John Stossel.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/..._040723-4.html

"As a lawyer, Senator Edwards took his responsibility to determine if cases were merited very seriously and would spend months investigating his cases. He employed a full-time medical staff to make sure the cases he took were those with the most merit, and he would not go forward with any case without the support of experts in the particular medical field. He also believes that we need a national system in place that will weed out the meritless lawsuits without taking away patients' rights."

Maybe all of Edward's cases were good ones, where C-sections were called for. It's possible that's true, but the fearful atmosphere that these kinds of lawsuits create has far-reaching consequences. Consider the minister who will no longer hug a grieving parishioner because of lawsuit concerns or the teachers who are told not to touch their students, or allow them to climb onto their lap for fear of lawsuit.

It makes it hard to trust job references. Employers can't tell the truth about their former employees, as the truth might have legal consequences. This threatens our safety, too.

It's one reason a nurse who was killing patients kept getting jobs at new hospitals. The previous hospitals were too afraid of lawsuits to warn others that they suspected the nurse had harmed patients at their hospital.

This kind of fear doesn't make Americans safer. Give me a break

John Edwards on tort reform
>>Q: Your position on the issue of civil tort reform?

A: I am proud of my 20 years work against powerful insurance companies and drug companies. I believe we have the best legal system in the world, but it is not perfect and can be improved. For example, doctors and health care providers are facing rising malpractice premiums and are having difficulty getting reimbursement for the services they provide. I have proposed that we put additional responsibilities on attorneys who file malpractice cases by requiring that they have the cases reviewed by independent experts who determine that they are serous and meritorious before a case can be filed and that the attorneys certify that this has been done. If an attorney fails to meet their obligations the attorney would be held accountable. And I would impose a three strikes and you're out rule so that if an attorney violated the requirement three times they would lose their right to file such cases for a substantial period of time.
Source: Concord Monitor / WashingtonPost.com on-line Q&A Nov 7, 2003
http://www.issues2000.org/2004/John_...ent_Reform.htm


independent pre-trial review
three strikes you're out
sounds like a plan to start reform to me.....


if the Democratic Party can get people to move beyond fear
and people are able to review facts;
Bush and Cheney are going home!

Nope, you still don't understand.

trial lawyers are not breaking any laws
here is an example of real fraud and abuse:
>>Schering-Plough Corp. pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it cheated Medicaid and agreed to pay $345.5 million in fines.

The agreement settles a five-year probe by federal prosecutors into the pharmaceutical firm's marketing practices for its Claritin allergy medication. Schering gave Cigna Corp. more than $10 million in kickbacks in order to keep its business after the health insurer said it would switch its patients to a lower-priced drug. At the same time, Schering continued to charge Medicaid a relatively high price for Claritin--violating the federal anti-kickback act, which requires drugmakers to offer Medicaid the lowest price on products. The settlement includes a criminal fine of $52.5 million and civil damages of $293 million.

The investigation was prompted by a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by three people who worked at a Schering-Plough subsidiary.<<
http://www.crainsny.com/news.cms?newsId=8504