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I'll be entering law school in a little over a year, and I was just curious about the area of medical malpractice defense. Anybody have any info or experience with this field? - it seems really interesting, and I wanted to know about how common the field is and its nature. thanks for your help!!

Doctors need tort reform in many states. Malpractice costs are so high, even for doctors who have never been sued. That's pretty much all I know.

Don't know if it's true, but I heard that attorneys in that field make a HUGE amount of money.

I think those might be trial attorneys that go after the doctors. Don't sell out!

This falls under the general category of insurance defense work, and ID largely lives in the realm of shitlaw (i.e. low-paying small firms).

LizLemon wrote:Doctors need tort reform in many states. Malpractice costs are so high, even for doctors who have never been sued. That's pretty much all I know.

An excellent generalization... In most states there are extensive statutory schemes already in place to afford physicians a far greater barrier to to protect against baseless lawsuits than virtually any other type of professional.. Tort reform is sort of a nice catch phrase that gets tossed around by people that don't actually understand the realities of litigation.

Anyway, op, its not a bad area of law to get into.. Basically, you need to have fairly good grades and have graduated from a good midlevel law school... Starting salaries in this area range from about 50k on the low end and about 70k on the high end.. Its a fairly specialized area, so if you stay too long, you may face an uphill battle should you decide to try to go into another area of practice. 5 years into this area of practice, you can earn 85 to 115k, depending on how good of a firm your at.. In NY, there are a handful of smaller to midsized firms that are well known for this type of practice... Wilson Elser is a bigger firm that is well known for this type of work, (though I must say I'd sooner jump out a window than voluntarily work for Wilson Elser, but I digress)

Renzo wrote:This falls under the general category of insurance defense work, and ID largely lives in the realm of shitlaw (i.e. low-paying small firms).

Insurance defense and medmal defense are not even close to the same thing.

reasonable_man wrote:

Renzo wrote:This falls under the general category of insurance defense work, and ID largely lives in the realm of shitlaw (i.e. low-paying small firms).

Insurance defense and medmal defense are not even close to the same thing.

I work at a hospital that uses a local clown-ass ID firm for its malpractice defense (hospital covers the physician's malpractice) so I assumed this is how it's generally done, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out otherwise. Same institution let the in-house GC argue a federal first amendment case against a national labor union. They lost.

Renzo wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:

Renzo wrote:This falls under the general category of insurance defense work, and ID largely lives in the realm of shitlaw (i.e. low-paying small firms).

Insurance defense and medmal defense are not even close to the same thing.

I work at a hospital that uses a local clown-ass ID firm for its malpractice defense (hospital covers the physician's malpractice) so I assumed this is how it's generally done, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out otherwise. Same institution let the in-house GC argue a federal first amendment case against a national labor union. They lost.

Well allowing a GC to take on an assignment like that without a very compelling reason is, well, stupid; assuming the GC doesn't have some kind of extensive litigation background... but even then.. that's a questionable call..

At least in NY, Malpractice defense is seen as a full step or two up from ID-shitlaw. The real firms that specialize in this area typically will do only this type of work, with a few other corresponding practice areas. Of course, there are some shitlaw-ID firms that hold themselves out as Medmal defense attorneys, but everyone knows thats garbage... Starting salaries can skip the crust of ID starting salaries, but in medmal defense, there is typically a real opportunity for upward salary growth.. As I said, starting salary in the 60k range isn't unusual, but there is typically room for growth..

My uncle is a Med Mal defense attorney at a fairly large firm 450+ and he says that particular area of law has been deteriorating over the past 5 years. He claims that partners in that particular area will bill for the same amount of money as a second year associate in business litigation will bill. My advice would be to look for another area that you are interested in...

fightin illini 25 wrote:My uncle is a Med Mal defense attorney at a fairly large firm 450+ and he says that particular area of law has been deteriorating over the past 5 years. He claims that partners in that particular area will bill for the same amount of money as a second year associate in business litigation will bill. My advice would be to look for another area that you are interested in...

Really depends on the type of "business litigation" you're talking about and what type of medmal defense... Quite honestly, prices are coming down across the board.. Medmal has the added problem of the involvement of insurance companies, who are notoriously cheap when it comes to billable hour rates..

Military doctors are protected from medical malpractice lawsuits filed by active military members by the Ferres doctrine. However, there are a wide variety of situations where a military doctor may be sued for medical negligence. Non-active personnel, dependent of military personnel as well as retired military members may file a malpractice lawsuit against a military doctor or a military hospital. In order to sue a military doctor, military personnel or dependents will utilize the federal tort claims act to file a lawsuit against the US government. The federal tort claims act, FTCA, allows people to hold government entities liable for injury under civil tort law and file a suit demanding compensation for all damages...for more read...

http://www.medical-malpractice-court-cases.com/

Perhaps this is an apt moment to categorize what falls under "shitlaw" and what does not. Reasonable man, since you seem to have knowledge in this area, could you take a crack at it?

miamiman wrote:Perhaps this is an apt moment to categorize what falls under "shitlaw" and what does not. Reasonable man, since you seem to have knowledge in this area, could you take a crack at it?

subtle burn?

pleasetryagain wrote:

miamiman wrote:Perhaps this is an apt moment to categorize what falls under "shitlaw" and what does not. Reasonable man, since you seem to have knowledge in this area, could you take a crack at it?

subtle burn?

None such. He just seems to know what he's talking about.

reasonable_man wrote:

LizLemon wrote:Doctors need tort reform in many states. Malpractice costs are so high, even for doctors who have never been sued. That's pretty much all I know.

An excellent generalization... In most states there are extensive statutory schemes already in place to afford physicians a far greater barrier to to protect against baseless lawsuits than virtually any other type of professional.. Tort reform is sort of a nice catch phrase that gets tossed around by people that don't actually understand the realities of litigation.

Anyway, op, its not a bad area of law to get into.. Basically, you need to have fairly good grades and have graduated from a good midlevel law school... Starting salaries in this area range from about 50k on the low end and about 70k on the high end.. Its a fairly specialized area, so if you stay too long, you may face an uphill battle should you decide to try to go into another area of practice. 5 years into this area of practice, you can earn 85 to 115k, depending on how good of a firm your at.. In NY, there are a handful of smaller to midsized firms that are well known for this type of practice... Wilson Elser is a bigger firm that is well known for this type of work, (though I must say I'd sooner jump out a window than voluntarily work for Wilson Elser, but I digress)

I know it's been a while, but I'm interested in medical malpractice defense. Never heard of Wilson Elser until today. Could you please explain the reasons for your last comment? Please.

DrLangdon wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:

LizLemon wrote:Doctors need tort reform in many states. Malpractice costs are so high, even for doctors who have never been sued. That's pretty much all I know.

An excellent generalization... In most states there are extensive statutory schemes already in place to afford physicians a far greater barrier to to protect against baseless lawsuits than virtually any other type of professional.. Tort reform is sort of a nice catch phrase that gets tossed around by people that don't actually understand the realities of litigation.

Anyway, op, its not a bad area of law to get into.. Basically, you need to have fairly good grades and have graduated from a good midlevel law school... Starting salaries in this area range from about 50k on the low end and about 70k on the high end.. Its a fairly specialized area, so if you stay too long, you may face an uphill battle should you decide to try to go into another area of practice. 5 years into this area of practice, you can earn 85 to 115k, depending on how good of a firm your at.. In NY, there are a handful of smaller to midsized firms that are well known for this type of practice... Wilson Elser is a bigger firm that is well known for this type of work, (though I must say I'd sooner jump out a window than voluntarily work for Wilson Elser, but I digress)

I know it's been a while, but I'm interested in medical malpractice defense. Never heard of Wilson Elser until today. Could you please explain the reasons for your last comment? Please.

Willson Elser is a huge firm that pays low salaries and offers little if no bonus for billing a ton of hours. It is a bit of a factory and for the most part focuses on low-end shit law (with a handful of attorneys that handle some med-mal and some construction cases, etc). I have just never been impressed by anything I've seen and frankly, anyone that works there seems to hate life. I also believe many attorneys share offices (which I could not stand).