Contact me at markploftus@aol.com

I've noted a couple of interesting articles in Illinois papers relating to "tort reform". The Chicago Tribune noted on March 11, 2004 that ISMIE, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer would be raising their rates only 7.4% in the next year. The rate increase is much smaller than the '03 increase(35%). It should be noted, that if in fact, there was some sort of litigation crisis, wouldn't the premiums continue to skyrocket? ISMIE however, insists that the malpractice crisis is not over. They attributed the lower rate increase to "aggressive defense against non-meritorious claims". Well, if they are aggressively defending claims(and they do, believe me) wouldn't their costs go up? And wouldn't they counter those costs by significantly increasing premiums? But those premiums aren't being increased. Makes you wonder about the veracity of all those claims that doctors are giving up their practices because of outrageous insurance premiums.

Interviewed a client recently on a potential legal malpractice claim - in other words, I would be suing her lawyer for screwing up her case. I look long and hard at legal cases because they can be hard to prove. But this one wouldn't very hard. It involves an elderly couple who are injured in a car accident in the early 90's. They go to a friend/attorney and he says he will represent them. He files suit in 1992. The case is dismissed for want of prosecution in 1993(ther was a status hearing on the case and the lawyer never showed up). The lawyer is then usually notified of the dismissal via postcard. Typically, the attorney brings a Motion to Vacate the dismissal within 30 days of the entry of the order and 99% of the judges will reinstate the case, no questions asked. Well this lawyer never filed the motion. Ever. And to make matters worse, he repeatedly told the client(and me) the case had "slipped through the cracks" and would be coming up for trial soon. The client finally got my name through a former client and I ordered the file out of storage. I was pretty stunned when I learned the case had been dismissed for 11 years and the client never advised. And to make matters worse, there is a statute of repose in Illinois regarding legal mal cases. In other words, there is a statute that says you have to file suit against a lawyer within 6 years of the malpractice or your case is barred. Thankfully, there is some caselaw that allows that deadline to be extended if you didn't discover discover the malpractice until some time later. Hopefully, in light of the egregious conduct, his carrier will want to settle the case so the allegations never see the light of day. Hard not to hate lawyers when this stuff happens to innocent people.