Judge-Directed Negotiations Expedite Malpractice Cases
side note: Here is a fantastic example of a successful medical malpractice program funded by the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. The pilot program is intended to streamline medical professional liability court cases. In a “judge-directed negotiation,” a judge with medical liability experience helps broker a settlement satisfactory to both parties, while cutting down the cost of a trial, which can stretch over the course of years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses. Judging by the successes outlined in the article below, this might be a more effective and fair option to capping damages.
In Justice Douglas E. McKeon’s fluorescent-lighted chambers in the Bronx, a new way of handling medical malpractice suits was on full, and sometimes gruesome, display. Around a polished wood table, lawyers haggled over the price for a lost nose ($300,000) and the missing tip of a finger ($50,000).
