Thursday, July 19, 2007

easy money

Everyone wants easy money - why else would so many people play the lottery? However, with the increase in feelings of entitlement and lack of work ethic that run rampant these days, people try to get easy money whether it harms the people around them or not. Their methods may be simple theivery or the more ambiguous form of stealing - frivilous lawsuits.
A doctor we know is mixed up in such a lawsuit right now. In fact, he will be out of his office and unavailable to patients for a week and a half because of it. A patient whom he had treated correctly had not followed his advice and ended up in the emergency room and shortly after, passed away. Our friend is being sued for malpractice along with the docs in the er. I am sorry the guy died, but honestly if you aren't going to follow the directions of the doctor why bother asking his advice.!!! His family is looking for someone to blame and a way to profit off his death. I think this is not only wrong but sick! Lawsuits such as this one not only tie up the courts from taking care of serious matters but they also waste a lot of money and can ruin careers of honest, hard-working doctors.
John and I have thought up some solutions to reduce the number of this type of lawsuits.
1) Fine the lawyers a significant amount of money (from their own pocket, not their firm) and for especially atrocious lawsuits maybe let the lawyers cool their heels in jail for a few days instead of chasing ambulances.
2) Take away the medical licenses of the doctors who provide faulty information as "expert" witness for the case.
3) Have a fine for the plantiff as well. Perhaps they will think twice before making a break for "easy money" when there is a penalty if they lose.
I know some really amazing lawyers so don't think I am againt anyone who works in the field, I am just so sick of people that will do anything for money. Perhaps with penalties in place we can make an end to these frivilous lawsuits and improve healthcare by allowing doctors to actually do their work.

1 comment:

International Tease said...

Oh, I think it's natural for people to want to blame someone when a loved one dies, and it's always hard to blame the dead. I actually think that limiting malpractice claims would be a much more effective way of getting rid of them--there are bad doctors out there who should pay for bad care, but it should be a challenge to win the suit, and it should not be so profitable that everyone will want to do it. By limiting the profitability of those particular lawsuits, people will be far less inclined to sue doctors, and lawyers far less inclined to take those cases.