Posts tagged Medical Malpractice

• Nevada Informed Consent May be Implied

  Steve Klearman | March 17, 2006 10:24 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  The issue of informed consent frequently arises in the context of medical malpractice cases.I'm used to sitting in depositions in which a medical malpractice defense attorney will hand my client's informed consent over to my client and then proceed with a series of questions intended to confuse. Malpractice victims obviously do not consent to allow a doctor to commit malpractice, but defense...

• The Riddle of Damage Caps

  Steve Klearman | March 16, 2006 3:56 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Defective & Dangerous Products
  

  Florida attorney Bob Carroll notes that a Florida newspaper recently posed questions to consider in the context of whether to impose damage caps:How much is the lifetime use of a right arm worth? What is fair compensation for spending 60 years blind because of a doctor's error? If a surgeon makes a mistake and cuts a nerve during routine surgery, forcing you to eat and drink through a tube for...

• Nevada Supreme Court Seeks Statistics on Medical Malpractice Backlog

  Steve Klearman | March 09, 2006 2:08 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  A district court judge mentioned to me yesterday that our Supreme Court was asking for statistics on how quickly medical malpractice cases were taking to get to trial.Here are a few personal observations.First, the Vegas backlog is not the Reno backlog. There is not a court-caused backlog in Reno (or in Northern Nevada) of which I am aware.We do have a related problem, though, and that has to...

• New Nevada Rules Off to Slow Start

  Steve Klearman | March 09, 2006 1:40 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Defective & Dangerous Products
  

  Much of litigation in Nevada is governed by the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure.On January 1, 2005 major amendments to the rules became effective. It's difficult to teach old lawyers (and judges) new tricks, though, and many district courts here are only now requiring compliance. The new rules track the Federal Rules in numerous respects and require parties to think about and organize cases...

• Confessions of a Doctor

  Steve Klearman | January 27, 2006 10:17 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  I spend a fair portion of my life in doctor depositions. Most depositions in an attorney's world take place in law firm conference rooms where we can spread out our papers and our notebooks and look a deponent in the eye from across the table.Doctor's depositions are different, though. Unless a doctor is a defendant in a malpractice action, most doctor depositions take place at the doctor's...

• The Role of Treating Doctors in Injury Cases

  Steve Klearman | January 26, 2006 11:59 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  This will be the first in a series of thoughts about the role that doctors play in injury cases. Doctors can be treating doctors, or expert witnesses, or either but not both, or both. This is a subject of some complexity that I will delve into more in the future; for now, though, let's talk about treating doctors.I was recently in a deposition in a case in which my partially disabled client...

• Statute of Limitations in Nevada Medical Malpractice Cases

  Steve Klearman | January 18, 2006 5:31 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Nevada's 2004 ballot initiative, concieved and created by the U.S. medical malpractice insurance lobby, and naively passed by Nevada's voters (who thought that they were voting to "keep doctors from moving out of Nevada"),contains a new one-year statute of limitations that severely curtails the rights of Nevada's medical malpractice victims.Nevada statute 41A.097 provides: 1. Except as...

• Expert Affidavits Required in Nevada Medical Malpractice Actions

  Steve Klearman | January 18, 2006 4:52 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Although medical malpractice is really a form of negligence, it must be proven through the use of expert witnesses. Doctors are usually needed to evaluate cases and to testify against other doctors. Similarly, nurses are frequently required to testify against other nurses. Defense lawyers hire their own experts in an effort to defeat the plaintiff's case. In medical malpractice trials, the jury...

• Stages of Litigation in Nevada - Part II

  Steve Klearman | January 05, 2006 2:42 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Defective & Dangerous Products
  

  There are numerous types of courts in Nevada, but injury cases are generally handled in the Nevada district court system.Generally speaking, there are two phases to most cases: 1) the settlement phase, and 2) the litigation phase. The litigation phase of a case can be divided into three distinct stages: 1) the complaint and answer stage, 2) the discovery stage, and 3) the trial stage.This is the...

• Stages Of Litigation In Nevada

  Steve Klearman | December 18, 2005 9:53 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Defective & Dangerous Products
  

  There are numerous types of courts in Nevada, but injury cases are generally handled in the Nevada district court system.Generally speaking, there are two phases to most cases: 1) the settlement phase, and 2) the litigation phase. The litigation phase of a case can be divided into three distinct stages: 1) the complaint and answer stage, 2) the discovery stage, and 3) the trial stage.This is the...