@laserchick. Ah! I see you have been a bad, bad girl speeding on your state's highways and they nailed you lol. Living in NYC there was no reason for a car or motorcycle...the later something I wanted. I finally purchased one in 82 and did not realize, even though I took a special motorcycle course, that the feeling of speed is different than a car. One night I was coming back from my 4 pm to 1 am medical assistant work in an urgent care center when I saw a blue light in my mirror. He said he had clocked me at something like 80 which could have been a reckless charge. In any case, my insurance went up appreciably. There were no programs at the time or at least I did not know of one. Many years later I was going just a few miles over the limit and availed myself of one of those courses. The cops in Northern Virginia are very, very strict unlike Montgomery County, MD.
@GSS I along with three other docs who were working in an Alternative practice were sued for malpractice for frivolous, frankly off the wall reasons. At the time I was working in two different states. Much to my surprise, my office manager only insured me in the other state. I had NO coverage where the law suit was taking place.
As one could imagine, I was very upset and stressed out, especially since I was the one who figured out what was wrong with him. The long and short of it is that he had an inflammatory bowel disease. he did not want to take the conventional medicines. The only advice I could give him was to decrease stress, take certain vitamins and supplements along with the regimen his Internist prescribed for him.
One day he comes to me telling me he has moderate abdominal pain. Considering his history, the first thing one thinks of is an intestinal abscess. I ordered a scan and that is exactly what he had. He was sent back to his Internist and ultimately had surgery and was became better than he ever had been...the natural history of the illness.
So, the law suit was off the wall and without merit. However, this was before the time when a physician had to certify that he suspected malpractice.
I made a deal with the three attorneys for the other guys that if they helped me with proper legal form, I would attend all depositions. So, I acted
pro se and submitted an "appearance" as such for the court. There was a time I wanted to go to law school because I had an interest in medical ethics. However, by that time, I did not think I could remember case law or read the fine print!
Turns out I had a real flair for it. I came up with a novel way of defending us. The other attorneys wanted to hire an "expert gastroenterologist" as a witness for an exorbitant amount of money...you know the deal...two hired guns fighting. I tell them, forget that, let's let the plaintiff be the expert, after all who else is a better expert on their own health but the patient.
At first they thought I was nuts. Then I explained that I would simply highlight a passage in a medical textbook explaining that abscesses followed by surgery usually result in the patient feeling better than previously. The judge thought it nuts too. He said that he always heard from licensed physicians and without a license to practice medicine, he could not be deemed an expert. (This was done without the presence of the jury.)
There was a comprise, he was simply called or perhaps deemed a witness for the defendants, a rather odd twist. I did just what I said I would do and he read the highlighted passage and I asked him, reminding him that he was under oath, if he was indeed better than he was before. He said yes. I knew this would cinch the case in the juries mind.
The three attorneys wanted me to give the closing argument which shocked me. I suggested that might seem disingenuous at best, that the jurors would think "of course he is simply trying to get out of a guilty verdict." However, the attorneys were already convinced by looking at the jurors faces that they had already made up their minds in our favor. So, I gave the argument, short and sweet. The jury deliberated for like a half hour. I was later told that there were no real hold outs for guilty.
Jurisprudence....what fun! The three attornies when I kidded with them that perhaps I should go to law school said that I did not need it, just go out and practice lol. I do have to say that I got a really good feel for what litigation is like having gone through the process. What I was not particularly good at is organizing all the paper that was generated. The three attornies had huge binders of paper. I had huge stacks!
