Features
FDA's Failure-to-Warn Pre-emption
Nearly one year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a pre-emption on filing failure-to-warn actions over federally approved drugs, rulings across the nation show a clear division over the issue.
Features
Medicaid Liens on Settlements After Ahlborn
Last May's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ark. Dep't of Human Servs. v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006) ' which held that when a Medicaid benefits recipient settles with a tortfeasor, states seeking recoupment of funds for monies expended on their medical care may do so only from that part of a settlement that was designated as being for past medical expenses ' has so far led to very few reported decisions on the subject. However, two recent cases in New York have applied the teachings of the decision to find that some malpractice claimants who are also Medicaid benefits recipients and who settle with those who allegedly injured them must be allowed to keep for themselves more of the proceeds of their claims.
Features
Fields v. Yusuf
Generally speaking, a physician is not liable for the negligent actions of hospital employees and staff who are not employed by the physician. There are, however, two key instances where a physician can be held liable for a non-employee's negligent actions: 1) when the physician discovers a non-employee's negligence during the course of ordinary care and fails to correct or otherwise prevent the ill effects of the negligent act; and 2) when the non-employee is under the physician's supervision and control such that a 'master and servant' relationship exists. Over the past several decades, the viability of this 'captain of the ship' doctrine has diminished, for several reasons.
Partial Birth Abortion
In what may become a landmark decision on abortion rights, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (the Act) in a 5-to-4 decision with implications extending beyond the abortion field.
Personal Liability for Excess Verdicts
In today's litigious environment, physicians consistently struggle with rising malpractice premiums. For those inclined to stop reading here, this article will not attempt to rehash the contentious debate over why malpractice premiums continue to rise. Rather, we want to discuss a fairly new and rapidly growing problem for physicians: personal liability for excess verdicts.
The Dog Ate My Hard Drive
In recent years, electronically stored information ' or 'ESI' as it has come to be known ' has become an increasingly 'hot topic' during discovery. Many attorneys now include questions regarding ESI in their standard discovery requests, and several of the recently enacted amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure address ESI-related discovery. Therefore, clients and counsel alike must have a clear understanding of their obligation to preserve ESI and the proper process for doing so.
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