Contact me at markploftus@aol.com

Saw an interesting article in Crain's Chicago Business the other day. The article, written by Sarah A. Klein detailed how physicians are all over the caps on recoveries in medical malpractice cases....until of course that physician is a victim of malpractice. Then their passion for caps drops rather abruptly. The article discusses Larry P. Wasser, a 61 year old retired oncologist in Kankakee. Dr. Wasser describes how he found being sued[in a case where he was ultimately dismissed]"...very traumatic". Well, his apparent dislike for lawsuits didn't bother him when he thought he was the victim of malpractice. After an orthopedic surgeon performed a three level fusion(instead of a four level fusion) he promptly filed suit against the surgeon. Wasser claims the allegedly botched surgery left him with on-going pain that cut his medical career short. To his credit, Wasser admits "I look at (malpractice)from a different point of view now." In the article, a lawyer who has represented several doctors as plaintiffs in medical malpractice notes: "If everyone had the attitude that the [physician plaintiffs]do, there would be more malpractice lawsuits." In addition, the article quotes another well known Chicago personal injury lawyer who captures the hypocrisy among those who argue so stridently for caps: "People can absorb unending amounts of pain, suffering, sorrow and loss of life, provided one thing prevails: It happens to someone else."

Have been getting a rash of folks calling wanting to hire me to prosecute consumer fraud related complaints. One lady called from Boston wanting to sue a guy who had sold her a car over the internet for $35,000 - but there was a hitch. He didn't own the car. He lied to her about providing title and also lied to her about the background of the car[it had been in a very serious accident and had been essentially rebuilt]. So she's out a ton of dough and can't even drive the stupid car.

In addition, was approached by a young woman who got screwed around by a mortgage company. They promised her an interest rate of 5.6 when she first contacted them. Over the course of the next several months the company delayed and delayed. Finally when the closing went forward, they told her the interest rate would be 8.5. When she hesitated, the construction company(the house was new construction)told her if she didn't close they would keep her earnest money of nearly $9000 - so she was really between a rock and a hard place. Either walk away and take a $9000 hit or go through with the closing and pay hundreds of thousands more in interest charges over the course of the loan. Although these aren't huge cases, I am appalled at what people/companies try to get away with these days. I may take a couple of these cases on as a change of pace to see if they can be litigated profitably -my heart says take them and help these people out, but I do have concerns they could ultimately eat up huge amounts of my time. We'll see.