Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

It will happen to almost any medical malpractice, product liability, or personal injury defense attorney at some point. You are going to attend one of the plaintiff’s treating medical provider’s deposition, and the doctor’s attorney has asked you to send the plaintiff’s medical records and a copy of the Complaint for the attorney to review. This request seems harmless enough, right? Only as long as you have the proper authorization, according to the holding in Thompson v. University of Chicago Medical Center, No. 2012 L 010412 out of the First Judicial District, Cook County, Illinois.

As reported by Missouri Lawyers Weekly, “a parade of lab-coated doctors” appeared before the Missouri State Senate and House of Representatives in early February 2013 to argue that the recent Missouri Supreme Court decision in Watts v. Cox Medical Center will reverse years of declining malpractice insurance rates. In Watts, the Court held in a 4-3 decision that the statutory cap of $350,000 on noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering is unconstitutional because it violates the plaintiff’s right to a trial by jury. The doctors argued that unlimited noneconomic damages will harm the availability and affordability of health care in Missouri and that restoring the cap will help to control costs and keep doctors in Missouri.