…it of certiorari of the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota appealing from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit opinion.   The Wall Street Journal reported: The justices … agreed to hear a challenge by medical colleges and teaching hospitals of a Treasury Department regulation requiring payment of Social Security taxes on behalf of medical residents. Under a 2005 Treasury Department rule, medical residents and other “… Continue reading →

Minnesota Litigator has frequently noted the significant hurdle to medical malpractice claims under Minnesota law posed by its affidavit of expert review statutes (or for MDs and one for other professionals) and the affidavit has proved impassable for yet another medical malpractice plaintiff. In Hanson vs. McNiff, et al., Dakota County Judge Kathryn D. Messerich held that expert affidavits offered as proof that an alleged delay in conducting a … Continue reading →

Update (September 2, 2011): As reported below, medical malpractice plaintiff Elliott Kaplan’s surgery did not quite go the way it would have with 20/20 hindsight perhaps, but the jury apparently concluded that perfection, while a worthy aspiration, is not the appropriate standard by which to measure good medical care. Kaplan lost his jury trial, the jury deliberating for a mere 38 minutes.  (His appeal is still pending before the United St… Continue reading →

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are in business to make money by providing medicine, treatments, or devices that promote health, of course.  It would take a profound cynicism on the one hand (if one were to argue they do not wish to promote health) or profound idealism on the other hand (if one were to argue they do not care about making money) to quibble with that basic proposition. But then how “safe” do their products … Continue reading →

First, thanks to Seth for allowing me to guest post during his absence.  For more on me, please check here. Now, on to the main topic.   The medical device industry is well-known for the competition between companies for good sales talent.  Judge Susan Richards Nelson has penned a textbook example of how to analyze a motion for a preliminary injunction in a non-competition case in her decision earlier this month in Boston Scientific Corp. v. Kea… Continue reading →

AGA Medical and the University of Minnesota have been locked in patent litigation since late November, 2007, over two patents relating to a medical device used in the repair of holes in hearts. This week, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.) decided AGA Medical’s motion for summary judgment, granting it in part but holding that one aspect of the U’s claims “almost certainly” would have to be decided by … Continue reading →

It is fair to say that the Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic is one of a few proverbial “crown jewels” of Minnesota (along with the boundary waters, Louise Erdrich, Prince and A Prairie Home Companion).  The Mayo Clinic’s preeminence in medical care is generally unchallenged and widely acknowledged.  Its unsurpassed reputation for patient care is presumably reflected in a relatively low rate of successful medical malpracti… Continue reading →

…n law firm,  in conjunction with the New York law firm of Levi & Korsinsky filed a putative class action complaint in Hennepin County District Court (Minneapolis) in connection with the recently announced sale of American Medical Systems. From the plaintiffs’ lawyers perspective, these are both cases where management and corporate boards seem intent on selling their companies for a fraction of their worth.  On its face, something seems… Continue reading →

… the defendants violated a standard of care to which Minnesota doctors must adhere. A “perfect ordinary, garden-variety contract claim” where patient and doctor bargain and dicker and reach a deal for a particular medical procedure to be undertaken during cancer surgery (which bargain bears no relationship whatsoever to the applicable standard of care for the kind of surgery involved)?  Did they discuss price?  That’s normally p… Continue reading →

Why is it that medical malpractice is seen (at least by some in our civic discourse) as a terrible scourge afflicting our society, driving up medical costs and clogging our court system with meritless lawsuits, some say?  But other kinds of professional malpractice seem almost invisible? Isn’t it ironic that medical malpractice claims, normally brought, of course, by lawyers, are singled out as particularly pernicious but legal malpractice… Continue reading →

…s of the drug, an antibiotic. Levaquin included a warning but sometime after Schedin’s incident, the warning was changed and made more prominent (made into a “black box” warning in 2008).  Subsequent warning label changes would be a classic “subsequent remedial measure” inadmissible at trial if it were not for the fact that the label change was mandated by the FDA, U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim has held. … Continue reading →