Welcome to the March 6, 2008 edition of Carnival of Everything Finance.We had over 110 really good articles submitted for this edition. Unfortunately I could not inc ……

I propose not just the standard defense. I suggest hiring a private lawyer to put the fire under the chair of the underpaid, under-skilled insurance defense lawyer. Every possible preliminary motion should be filed. If a motion fails, the defense attorney should know, she will be fired. That is the Walmart system. That way, the defense attorney does not get rewarded with trial fees for failing pre-trial motions.

I also would absolutely demand sanctions from the judge against the plaintiff attorney and plaintiff expert for every infraction. One has to use every word said or written in gotcha. If the defense attorney refuses to write these, because of needing the fees of a trial, I would write the complaints to the judge personally. Ordinary language is fine. For example, one could say, the claim in the resume of the expert is false. Then submit the highlighted resume, and the evidence that the claim is false. The judge will find that helpful. Do not make the judge do work. He is not allowed to do your work of advocacy, nor to do any other investigation. If he did, he could be impeached. Lay out the evidence in one communication.

One should also file ethics charges with the respective licensing boards, against both. These valid complaints to insure the other side lives with uncertainty as they have insured the innocent defendant has to. I oppose frivolous complaints against the plaintiff side.

Doctors should settle cases if they are sure they made a harmful mistake, and not to avoid the conflict of litigation. That is a legitimate purpose of malpractice insurance. I oppose a vigorous defense to maintain pride.

The extra effort shuts off future lawyer cottage industries. I am disappointed when pharmaceutical companies take the short sighted cowardly route. I may try to alter the balance of fear by suing them as a shareholder, to whom they owe fiduciary duties to defend these bogus lawsuits.

Let’s say, there is some chance of losing $100k in court. The offer is to settle for $10K. Pretty irresistible, no?

The thing you are forgetting is that it will cost $10K (or more) just to defend against the suit, and that’s if you WIN.

AND there’s often a penalty for being sued too much, even if you win them all (in terms of med-mal insurance).

The physician’s position is thus lose-lose.

Economics be damned, I guess if I were a doctor I would not fold my tent and creep away unless I had committed an error that was truly the result of incompetence.

One wishes the system were better. But given what we have to work with, we all need to stand up for what we think we have done right. Or at least NOT done egregiously, pig-headedly, stupidly wrong.

A physician’s point of view on medical malpractice…….

How can anyone lose by settling?

The lawyers learn from case experience. Thus, across the country, dozens or hundreds of cases will get filed to make an easy $10K.

One should settle only if one feels one has made a mistake that hurt a patient.

Easterbrook: “One who misuses litigation to obtain money to which he is not entitled is hardly in a position to insist that the court now proceed to address his legitimate claims, if any there are……….