Playing Fair: Discovering Facts About Medical Malpractice Injuries

How do you prove your medical malpractice case? What do you do if a defendant hospital doesn't "play fair" ? In Charleston, South Carolina the Court ordered a hospital to pay $1.3 million as a sanction to the plaintiff in a medical malpractice. The reason: The hospital was found to have given inaccurate answers to questions, inaccurate testmony and to have engaged in other "misconduct" . See: http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007053042/Hospital-sanctioned-1-3-million-over-lawsuit/).

In a malpractice case you need more than just the hospital or doctor's office records. You need the "post-it notes" on the file jacket, the telephone records of the doctor's calls, the operating room log, the personnel records that show who was working the critical shift when the malpractice occurred and a whole host of information that is found outside the patient chart. During a medical malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff has to rely on the rules of discovery to gain access to necessary information about what really happened, who saw it and why no one stepped in to protect the patient. State or Federal rules of civil procedure that apply can be abused or disregarded, as described in the Charlston, South Carolina case reported by the Associated Press. Discovery rules provide the parties protection from unfair or burdensome discovery, but this case is proof that the Courts also allow parties the protection of discovery rules. A request for relevant information is fair, and Courts will uphold it.

by:rockport.injuryboard.com