- 1A bad result is not a finding. A patient can be badly hurt and the care can still have met the standard, so the outcome alone never tells you whether you have a claim.
- 2Many birth injury cases turn on timing. The warning signs during a birth get ignored, blown off or not recognized, and the question is whether the baby needed to be delivered sooner.
- 3Most callers hear no, and the no carries information. I reject the vast majority of cases, because a weak case costs the lawyer who brings it and a bad outcome is not enough.
- 4Read the record before deciding what it means. The charted times and the baby strips, reviewed with practicing doctors, are how I learn whether the standard of care was met.
- 5Another doctor has to sign first. A case generally cannot go forward in Maryland without a certificate of qualified expert, and one filed late or wrong can undo a strong case.
- 6Count from the injury. I give adults three years from the date of the injury, the conservative count, and a child's date is one a lawyer should confirm.
- 7Proof and coverage are two separate gates. Someone has to have fallen below the standard of care, and something has to stand behind that someone to pay for what a family will need.
- 8I say Maryland limits pain and suffering but not the losses a calculator can reach. Economic damages are not limited, as I see it. The statute, section 3-2A-09, sets a ceiling on non-economic damages that rises each January 1 and limits past medical expenses to amounts paid or owed.
- 9Your life, your two big decisions. The client decides whether to file and whether to accept an offer, and I believe a good settlement beats a great trial.
- 10Families want more than a check. They want what happened acknowledged and some validation that the system let them down, and in my thirty-five years an apology has not come often.
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