The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has just adopted a new test for waiver of the protection of the attorney work product doctrine, but it has reaffirmed the standard test for waiver of the attorney-client privilege. BouSamra v. Excela Health, __ A.3d __, 2019 WL 2509384 (Pa., June 18, 2019) is the story of a discovery dispute about one email sent among three people. The discovery dispute arose in a hospital context, but the tests are not limited to hospitals.
Medical malpractice, or medical negligence as it is also called, is care or treatment by a medical provider (doctor, nurse, therapist, etc.) that is found to be below the accepted standard of care and that caused harm to a patient. In a medical malpractice lawsuit, it is the burden of the patient who is alleging injury to prove that the medical provider failed to render proper care to her, and that failure was a substantial contributing cause of the injuries claimed. Establishing that the medical provider’s care fell below the standard of care can, in some cases, be fairly straightforward and is often easier to prove than the question of causation, i.e. linking the injury to the substandard care.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court just issued an important decision allowing evidence of risk in medical negligence cases that may alter the way they are tried. Mitchell v. Shikora, __ A.3d __, 2019 WL 2504475, *1 (Pa., June 18, 2019) holds that “evidence of the risks and complications of a surgery may be admissible at trial.” The qualifying words, “may be,” are significant.
June 15th is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. With events to bring awareness to the endemic of worldwide elder abuse countries provide activities and training for prevention, recognition, and treatment of elder abuse worldwide.
BREAKING: Financial information including credit card and bank account numbers of approximately 12 million users compromised by a data breach of one of the largest blood testing providers in the country, Quest Diagnostics.
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