1/29/15 - Doctors rally on behalf of lawyer facing $1M in sanctions

[DonnaBav...@aol.com]

1/29/15 - Liability and Health Reform Update

Doctors rally on behalf of lawyer facing $1M in sanctions

 

 

Good afternoon,

 

The following letter is from good friend and physician/patient advocate Dr. Joan Zeidman, in support of a medical liability defense attorney who has been slammed with outrageous sanctions which have devastated her personal life as a result of her representation of a PA physician. 

 

Joan contacted me about this a little more than a week ago, and the story has progressed since that time.  Please read Joan's letter to her OB Society colleagues, and this piece from Philly.com to be fully aware of what's happened in this case. It is especially encouraging to see that the Pennsylvania Medical Society is fully supporting this legal professional.

 

Our friends in the medical liability defense bar protect physicians' ability to practice medicine every day.  If there's anything you can do to show support for Atty. Nancy Raynor , please do so.

 

Thanks to Joan Zeidman for sounding the call about this issue and thank you in advance for anything you can do.

 

Regards,

Donna Baver Rovito

Editor, Liability and Health Reform Update

 

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From Joan Zeidman, MD:

 

Dear Fellow OB Society Members,

Once again a gauntlet has been thrown at our feet in our fight for fairness in our professional liability fight in PA and specifically in Philadelphia. This email is a request for action on our part to shed light on an event that has taken place in a Philadelphia courtroom that can potentially affect every physician in PA, especially those of us in high liability risk fields, and everyone should know about this and act.

 

Nancy Raynor, of Raynor and Associates, P.C., is a medical malpractice defense attorney who is highly regarded and respected and very skilled. She defended my partners in a very difficult case this spring and helped them win their case. This was a very tricky case for a multitude of reasons including legal manipulations by the plaintiff's attorneys regarding a patient who had a stroke post-partum. They won their case because of the skilled defense supplied by Nancy Raynor. Suffice it to say that she is a thorn in the side of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the area.

 

Nancy recently defended a radiologist in a malpractice case regarding a missed diagnosis of lung cancer. The judge had issued a pre-trial directive that none of the witnesses may mention to the jury that the patient in question was a long time smoker. Nancy instructed her expert witness not to mention that fact. However, during the trial, the defense expert witness did indeed blurt out that fact, and a mistrial was declared.

 

The case went to a second trial, and the defendent lost to the tune of millions. Then, the plaintiff's attorney asked the judge to sanction Nancy personally and require her to pay all of the court costs out of her own pocket for the second trial since it was her defense expert that caused the initial mistrial. The judge, Judge Paul Panepinto, agreed and also levied a $1,000,000 fine. Yes, $1,000,000. Nancy's bank accounts and account receivables were seized. She has declared bankruptcy, she has had to close her firm as she can't pay anyone, and she will most likely lose her house. The judge will not allow appeals or a stay of execution to seizing her assets.

Needless to say, besides the personal devastation to a professional who has just lost her livelihood, a 30 year career, her savings, and probably her home, the legal precedent that this has set will be devastating to the medical community. We may no longer be able to find malpractice defense attorneys willing to fight for us anymore if they know that their personal assets may be at stake for something that they have no control over. She has put out a plea for public pressure to be put on the judge and for as much publicity as can be garnered from the medical community. She has the backing of the PA Medical Society, and the president-elect of PMS, Scott Shapiro, will be presenting her case to the Board of Trustees asking for help.

 

She is hoping for letters and emails to Dr. Shapiro as well as letters to the editor of the Phila. Inquirer and anything that could put pressure on this judge. The hope and need is to disseminate this story as far and wide as possible. We cannot continue to let the courts bully us and those whose job it is to defend us.

Dr. Shapiro's email address is scotte...@aol.com. Letters to the editor of the Inquirer can be addressed to inquirer...@phillynews.com or mailed to The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101. You must include a home address and day and evening phone numbers and keep your letter to 150 words.

Hopefully we can help Nancy. We can surely help to shed light on what can only be described as a legal war on the medical community and on those who have our backs, our defense attorneys.

Joan H. Zeidman, M.D.

Past President

Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia

 

From Philly.com

Doctors rally on behalf of lawyer facing $1M in sanctions

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150129_Doctors_rally_on_behalf_of_lawyer_facing__1M_in_sanctions.html

 

 

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image: http://media.philly.com/images/LAWFINE25.jpg

Defense lawyer Nancy Raynor, who is appealing the penalty, says her accounts have been frozen and a lien is on her home. Opposing counsel counter that her witness cost them and their client more than $1 million. JOSEPH KACZMAREK / For the Inquirer

CHRIS MONDICS, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

LAST UPDATED: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 1:08 AM
POSTED: Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 5:44 PM

image: http://media.philly.com/designimages/partnerIcon-Inquirer-2014.jpg

The Pennsylvania Medical Society, which represents thousands of the state's doctors, says it will be entering the legal battle over $1 million in sanctions imposed by a Philadelphia judge on a lawyer who represents physicians in medical malpractice cases.

Society president-elect Scott Shapiro, an Abington cardiologist, said he expects his organization to file legal papers in support of Berwyn lawyer Nancy Raynor to overturn the sanctions.

"Multiple physicians have reached out to me, and they have all indicated in a variety of ways that this will impact physicians' ability to have the full benefit of a complete and thorough defense if they are named in a malpractice case," Shapiro said. "If I were a lawyer, [I would ask] why would I do a full-court press if my assets are on the line?"

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Panepinto slapped Raynor with nearly $1 million in court sanctions Nov. 4 because one of her witnesses testified that a woman at the heart of a medical malpractice trial had been a smoker, breaching a court order against such a statement. The family of the woman, who had died of lung cancer, won a $190,000 verdict, but Panepinto reversed the award and ordered another trial, finding that the smoking reference had unfairly tilted the scales in favor of the defense.

The sanctions were intended to reimburse the woman's family and her attorneys for the lost time and expense of the first trial. But the decision has triggered sharp criticism, not only from the society, but also from members of the defense bar and others, who say the amount of the sanctions is unprecedented, and, given disputed facts in the matter, unwarranted.

Raynor's bank accounts have been frozen, and there is a lien on her house as a consequence of the ruling. Raynor says she is facing the possibility of shuttering her firm if she cannot gain access to her money.

"There is just no way that a lawyer should lose their home over something like this," said Shapiro.

Raynor has appealed to Superior Court, and Panepinto will preside over a hearing Feb. 19 on Raynor's request that the seizures be halted pending the outcome of that appeal. Shapiro said he expects his organization, which represents more than 17,000 doctors, to file a friend-of-the-court brief on Raynor's behalf.

The case hinges to a great extent on instructions that Panepinto gave at the outset of the trial, banning any reference to smoking by Rosalind Wilson, and instructions after the trial was underway. Wilson visited Roxborough Memorial Hospital in May 2007, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. She was given a chest X-ray, but was never told of a suspicious growth that showed up in the examination. She died of lung cancer two years later.

The attorneys for Wilson's survivors, Matt D'Annunzio and Joseph L. Messa, who were suing Roxborough Memorial and physicians involved in her care, had argued that testimony on Wilson's smoking habit would unfairly bias the jury.

During the trial, defense witness Dr. John Kelly mentioned Wilson was a smoker when Raynor asked him if Wilson had risk factors for cardiovascular disease. She claims she was intending for him to focus on Wilson's high blood pressure. Later, Raynor asserted that she had repeatedly advised Kelly that smoking testimony was off-limits, and has filed statements from other members of the defense team backing up her account.

On Wednesday, Raynor said that yet another member of the defense team, a courtroom technology specialist, also backed up her account.

Panepinto's Nov. 4 order requires Raynor to pay D'Annunzio's firm $615,349, Messa's firm $160,612, and Wilson's daughter $170,235.

Raynor says her malpractice insurance cannot be used because it excludes coverage for court-imposed sanctions.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150129_Doctors_rally_on_behalf_of_lawyer_facing__1M_in_sanctions.html#hlzCokbb8XgfbwFy.99