[HSF] Standard of care for lawyers

Wed Apr 9 18:46:49 EDT 2008

Mike:
I was holding back.  I don't kid myself to think that there are no
legal-type lurkers on this forum.  If there are any listening in, I've got a
hot tip on several cases of negligence and some adverse drug reactions that
have yet to be published.  I'm just looking for a finders fee.  All kidding
aside, I would bet that in every hospital in the country (USA), there are
paid informants that report back to litigators when they see an adverse
outcome.  Sometimes it might even be your colleague, your favorite nurse or
respiratory therapist, or even the custodial staff.  It is surprising how
little "blood money" it takes.

Ed Bender, MD

On 4/9/08 5:34 PM, "Michael Firstenberg" <msfirst at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ed
> Tell us how you really feel - dont hold back it is just us.
> 
> 
> Michael Firstenberg <msfirst at gmail.com>
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Edward Bender" <ebender001 at charter.net>
> To: OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
> Sent: 4/9/2008 5:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [HSF] Standard of care for lawyers
> 
> This is disturbing but not that surprising.  Perhaps if lawyers were
> required to carry malpractice insurance that paid as well as medical
> malpractice insurance, there would be an incentive for one attorney to go
> after another.  As it stands, what's in it for a prospective plaintiff?
> Ethics are obviously not involved.
> 
> I related your story to one of my cardiologists with whom I regularly trade
> legal nightmare stories.  He tells me of a surgeon who was in the middle of
> an aortic aneurysm repair who was mistakenly paged by an outside ER for a
> trauma case.  He wasn't on call and obviously could not deal with the acute
> trauma during his AAA repair in any case.  The correct surgeon was called,
> the patient was transferred but died in the ER of severe multiple trauma.
> The mistakenly called surgeon was named in the subsequent law suit, and the
> plaintiff's attorney refused to drop him from the case unless he was paid
> some money.  This went on for years, and he was eventually dropped.  The
> surgeon wanted to sue the attorney but could find no attorney that was
> willing to take the case.  The surgeon was so angered by this that he spent
> the next year learning how to file and pursue this himself, and he
> eventually won a huge settlement from the litigator's law firm.  The moral
> of the story is that litigators are scum sucking, bottom dwelling, garbage
> eating pig-f**kers, who have crawled out of the a**hole of hell - and I mean
> that with all due respect.
> 
> Ed Bender, MD
> 
> 
> On 4/9/08 1:28 PM, "dukeb60 at aol.com" <dukeb60 at aol.com> wrote:
> 
>> ?? It has been fairly quiet on the forum so I'll post this recent response
>> from our State Supreme Court to induce some reaction.? As you know, I am a
>> lawyer although I have never practiced law but do have a little more
>> background than the average person and did pass the bar.? I recently had a
>> lawyer handle a case for me in which he performed very poorly and what I
>> considered to be in a frankly negligent manner by not representing my
>> interests and failing to even read some rather pertinent legal materials.? As
>> a result, I filed a complaint with the Counsel for Discipline of our State
>> Supreme court to review his handling of the case.? The response startled even
>> me not so much in the conclusion but the rational for the same, which I will
>> share.? The respondent wrote,
>> 
>> "Isolated instances of ordinary negligence or errors of judgement do not rise
>> to the level of a disciplinary violation and are not sufficient to warrant
>> disciplinary action.?
>> ?
>> ??As stated in Modern?Legal Ethics (1986):
>> ??? 
>> ????????? To date, the enforcement of competence standards has been generally
>> limited to relatively exotic, blatant, or repeated cases of lawyer bungling.?
>> Lawyers who make some showing of effort, and who do nothing other than
>> perform
>> badly, rarely appear in the appellate reports in discipline cases.? The
>> lawyers who are disciplined for? incompetence have usually aggravated their
>> situation.? For example, several cases involve lawyers who, after their
>> incompetent work, concocted elaborate schemes or lies to decieve a client
>> whose case was mishandled.
>> 
>> ?? ... For the above reasons I have concluded, pursuant to Rule of Discipline
>> 9(C), that your allegations against Attorney "X" do not warrant further
>> inquiry by this office."?
>> 
>> ???? So, this is the standard to which our legal professionals are held in
>> their handling of cases.? I am quite certain it is not the same standard to
>> which we, as medical professionals, are held in the handling of our cases.?
>> It
>> is okay to bungle as long as you don't concoct a scheme to conceal the
>> bungling.
>> ? 
>> As much as it is hard to believe that is actually what a representative of
>> the
>> Supreme Court wrote it is true.? Caveat emptor, clearly, is the rule in law.?
>> While I appreciate the education of a law degree, it is indeed embarrassing
>> sometimes to be one.
>> 
>> 
>> 
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????>>
?
>> ????????????????????????????????????????? Ed
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