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Multi-Million Dollar Verdicts: Time for a Second Opinion

By Michael D. Brophy
April 23, 2004

Few health-care providers confronting the reality of trial proceedings in cases involving serious injury or death fail to recognize the possibility of a multi-million dollar verdict being returned in favor of the plaintiff. In 2003, 15 of the top 100 verdicts reported nationwide by Verdictsearch resulted from medical malpractice actions, with the range falling between an award of approximately $19,465,000 to an incredible $112 million in a case involving the alleged failure to diagnose an aneurysm, which led to the patient's quadriplegia and significant brain damage. See www:verdictsearch.com/news/top100.

Recognition of the numerous multi-million-dollar verdicts that have been returned against health care providers, both corporate and individual, is not intended as a criticism of the skilled defense lawyers who were involved in these cases. The fact that a defendant involved in a case of potentially catastrophic damages entrusts the trial of so serious a matter to one or more lawyers reflects the highest degree of trust between attorney and client, and in most if not all trials, further reflects years of successful litigation experience by defense counsel. Nevertheless, given the significant number of seven- and eight-figure verdicts returned over the past decade in medical malpractice litigation, it is perhaps incumbent on all of us who specialize in the defense of such matters to re-examine our approach and consider whether all that could be done has, in every case, been done.

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