Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware that the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act requires that all “claims against healthcare providers be reviewed or ‘filtered’ through a medical review panel before proceeding to any other court.” Also, medical malpractice suits are subject to a period of prescription — that…
Many families in America have had to move their loved ones into a nursing home. Whether the reason is that they don’t have the room to care for the elder, they don’t have the time or money to provide adequate care, or their elder wishes to be in the nursing…
In June 2010, the First Circuit of the State of Louisiana Court of Appeal reversed and remanded the case of Lena Hebert et al. v. Plaquemine Caring, L.L.C. due to a legal error committed by the Eighteenth Judicial District Court for Iberville Parish. This legal error proved to be a…
In Louisiana, there are certain steps that need to be taken in order to file a case for medical malpractice. In order to get a case to trial, a plaintiff must first submit a malpractice petition to a medical review board. The board reviews the facts surrounding a case and…
The Court of Appeals of Louisiana, Third Circuit, recently held the Medical Malpractice Act’s (MMA) award limitation unconstitutional when applied in violation of the Equal Protection clause of the 1974 Louisiana State Constitution. In Oliver v. Magnolia Clinic, a minor child was treated by a nurse practitioner who failed to…
Certain legal rights are transferable. If you owe a debt to some entity, upon your death, there is a chance that the entity will have some rights to your estate in order to satisfy your debt. Another example of a transferable right is a right of survival. If the victim…
Taylor Oliver was born on September 5, 2000. Shortly after birth, Taylor began experiencing health problems and was brought to the Magnolia Clinic, where she was treated exclusively by Susan Duhon on thirty-two occasions. Since Nurse Practitioners are required to collaborate with a physician, Duhon agreed to collaborate with Dr.…
Medical malpractice cases often turn on whether the plaintiff can establish that the health care provider breached the standard of care. Louisiana’s Medical Malpractice Act governs the conduct of health care professionals and mandates that the standard of care owed is that of the average member of the profession under…
It is well settled in Louisiana law that “a tortfeasor takes his victim as he finds him and when a defendant’s tortious conduct aggravates a pre-existing condition, the defendant must compensate the victim for the full extent of the aggravation.” Lasha v. Olin Corp. In other words, when a person…
The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, as we have previously explored, occurs when the defendant purposefully engages in extreme or outrageous conduct with the goal of seriously upsetting the plaintiff. A different case is the scenario involving the plaintiff’s mental distress that results from the defendant’s negligent conduct.…