New York Medical malpractice cases, like medical malpractice cases everywhere, are tough. Juries like doctors. They feel sorry for doctors who are sued. They don’t want to tell physicians they were “negligent”. Doctors’ insurance company lawyers fight like hell to disparage the patient in front of the jury, to make the patient seem untrustworthy, and to paint their client-doctor as a helpless, honest victim of a greedy medical malpractice lawyer. These strategies sometimes work. Even when juries think a doctor made a mistake, or was careless, they sometimes refuse to find them liable for the injuries they carelessly caused. They justify such verdicts by saying to themselves things like, “gee, that doctor didn’t MEAN to hurt the patient”. Statistically, the doctor beats the patient in most New York medical malpractice lawsuits that go trial.
So when a New York medical malpractice lawyer brings a medical malpractice lawsuit all the way to trial, and wins, it is cause for celebration (not for the doctor or her insurance carrier, of course, but for the patient and her lawyer).
Today we celebrate the victory of our friends and fellow Syracuse medical malpractice attorneys David Howe and Michael Porter who, on May 7, won for their client a thumbs-up verdict in a Syracuse medical malpractice lawsuit. The patient’s surgeon had committed malpractice by negligently severing nerves in her ankles during a tarsal tunnel syndrome surgery several years ago. This caused significant limitation in her ability to move her feet, as well as permanent and severe pain to her feet and ankles, and eventually caused her to lose her job. The Syracuse jury awarded the patient $678,000 in compensation.
Our hats go off to Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers Michael Porter and David Howe.