Since 2003, Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1006 required plaintiffs in medical malpractice actions to only file a claim in the county in which the cause of action arose, or in instances where multiple healthcare providers are defendants, any county where venue...

In an opinion authored by the Honorable J. McLaughlin, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently vacated an entry of summary judgment based on The Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act’s (“MCARE”) equitable tolling of the statute of limitations...

In a non-precedential opinion authored by the Honorable Mary P. Murray, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently remanded a medical malpractice matter for a new trial on the issue of damages based on a finding that the verdict may have been excessive....

In Pennsylvania, regardless of when a medical injury was discovered, plaintiffs had only seven years from the actual causation of injury to bring forth a medical malpractice claim. The so-called limit to the discovery rule no longer applies. On October 31, 2019 the...

On October 17, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a Superior Court ruling involving an exception to the Pennsylvania statute of limitations for medical malpractice actions. The discovery rule allows a patient to bring a claim after the statute has passed,...

In an opinion authored by Justice Christine Donohue, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently restricted the application of the Peer Review Protection Act (PRPA). On March 27, 2018, the Court declined to extend the privilege to reviews conducted by an employee of a...

In an opinion authored by Senior Judge William H. Platt, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently addressed whether expert witnesses, specifically medical experts, can testify to matters that are not directly within their specialty. In James v. Albert Einstein...

In an opinion authored by Justice David N. Wecht, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently addressed whether certain jurors should have been presumed prejudiced and dismissed based on their indirect relationship with the defendant’s employer, who was not a party to...

In an opinion authored by Justice David N. Wecht, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently held that physicians cannot rely on their staff or subordinates to disclose the information required to obtain informed consent from a patient; the information must come...

The Honorable Kim R. Gibson of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania recently granted a plaintiffs’ motion in limine to preclude the defendant from submitting calculations of future life care costs that were based on...

The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas recently issued an opinion in support of its order transferring a medical malpractice case to Berks County, holding that sending test results "does not rise to the level of rendering healthcare services" that would make...

In Page v. Moses Taylor Hospital, et al.,[1] the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas denied defendants’ motion seeking to permanently seal plaintiffs’ settlement petition as well as all related filings and orders, finding that the...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently upheld a law that bars wrongful birth lawsuits.  In the underlying case, Sernovitz v. Dershaw, the plaintiffs filed suit against Mrs. Sernovitz’s treating physicians for failure to inform her of circumstances that...

The following is an update to an earlier posting, found HERE. In an unreported memorandum opinion, Judge J. Brian Johnson denied a defendant physician’s motion for summary judgment and found that the defendant physician owed a duty of care to a non-patient where...

In Shinal v. Toms, 2015 Pa. Super. 178 (Aug. 25, 2015), The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the trial court’s decision not to strike four prospective jurors for cause based on their relationship with defendant medical facilities because...

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed and remanded a Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas decision, holding that Plaintiffs-Appellants presented a prima facie case that their infant child’s risk of harm was increased by six...

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently affirmed a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas’ decision granting summary judgment in favor of appellees regarding whether or not the appellants’ execution of a release barred them from subsequently suing for medical...

A three judge panel upheld a Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas ruling that the Pennsylvania Peer Review Protection Act’s (“PRPA”) privilege provision only applies to peer reviews initiated by a professional health care provider.  A medical peer review...

A three judge panel overturned an Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas ruling that the minutes of a board meeting conducted following a tainted kidney transplant were discoverable.  The panel remanded the decision for in camera review for the trial court to...

The Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas has held that an incident report completed by a charge nurse is not barred from discovery under the MCARE Act. The court's decision is among other recent trial court decisions regarding the growing body of case law that has...

The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently overruled a trial court decision to sustain preliminary objections, and allowed a plaintiff to proceed with vicarious liability and corporate negligence claims against a Philadelphia hospital. In doing so, the three-judge panel...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently declined to follow the Superior Court’s November 2013 prescription for a blanket prohibition of evidence of informed consent in medical malpractice cases.  In doing so, however, the Supreme Court affirmed the long held...

On March 5, 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas' grant of summary judgment in a case involving a surgical tube left in a man's chest after surgery and that remained in the man until he died.  Following his death,...

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently heard arguments on whether a hospital can be held vicariously liable for a resident physician who undertakes care of a patient without a prior physician-patient relationship, and whether a nurse employed by the hospital can...

A split Pennsylvania Superior Court recently granted a new trial for a minor based on testimony elicited by defense counsel at trial regarding federal and state benefits that the minor-plaintiff received for her birth injuries.  Although plaintiff's counsel...

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently heard arguments as to whether a physician must disclose his medical malpractice coverage for a procedure to be performed on his patient.  The Court also heard arguments that, in the event that a physician did not have...

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently reversed a finding that an internal memorandum conducted following a roundtable review of an infant’s anoxic injury was discoverable and concluded that New Jersey’s 2004 Patient Safety Act rendered the document...

Last month, Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas Judge Terrence R. Nealon granted a plaintiff’s discovery appeal in her medical malpractice case and ruled that the Peer Review Protection Act (“PRPA”) did not shield quality-of-care reviews conducted by hospital plan...

Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted allocatur to a case questioning whether a jury should be allowed to consider a vicarious liability claim based on a theory of ostensible agency where a physician provides emergency treatment at the behest of a...

In an issue of first impression, the Lackawanna County trial court recently declined to extend the Peer Review Protection Act to quality-of-care reviews conducted by health insurance companies, regardless of who the company hired to conduct the peer...

The Carbon County Court of Common Pleas recently denied a motion for a new trial, finding that the trial court did not err in allowing the names of defendants who settled prior to trial to remain on the verdict sheet.  In doing so, the court described the way in...

The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently held that leaving a sponge in a patient speaks for itself and does not require an expert witness to prove negligence or causation in a medical malpractice trial.  In Fessenden v. Robert Packer Hospital, the patient...

Following the Pennsylvania Superior Court’s November 2013 decision in Brady v. Urbas, the Supreme Court recently granted allocator to decide whether the Superior Court properly ruled that evidence of informed consent was impermissible to defend a...

The recent split Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that created a definitive barrier to the discovery of attorney-expert communications is now officially part of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure.  The Court approved an amendment to Rule 4003.5 of the...

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts ("AOPC") recently released statistics that illustrate the effects of the procedural changes implemented by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2003 that required cases to be brought in the venue where the action arose and...

An evenly split Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently upheld the Superior Court’s 2011 finding that the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure prohibited an orthopedic group from supplying correspondence between a plaintiff’s attorney and the physician who...

New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University recently agreed to pay a combined total of $4.8 million for their failure to secure thousands of patients’ electronic protected health information (“ePHI”) held on a shared network.  This fine is the largest...

In reviewing its ruling in Matharu v. Muir, 29 A.3d 375 (2011), the Pennsylvania Superior Court unanimously held that physicians owe a duty of care to their patients’ unborn children.  The en banc panel distinguished this finding from the 2012 Seebold...

As previously reported on obrlaw.com, on May 23, 2012, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted petitions for allowance of appeal filed on behalf of a defendant physician and her practice group, to address the Superior Court's analysis of the "error in...

The Superior Court recently remanded a medical malpractice case back to the Clarion County Court of Common Pleas after ruling that the jury erroneously found a clerk’s admitted filing error was not negligent.   In writing on behalf of the unanimous...

In an opinion issued on November 12, 2013, a three-judge panel for the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that repeated references to a patient’s consent to the surgeries at issue in a medical malpractice trial were both irrelevant and unduly prejudicial.  Given...

On the morning of October 23, 2013, Senate Bill 379, also known as the “Benevolent Gesture” Bill, was signed into law by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, after unanimous approval in both the State Senate and House of Representatives.  The Benevolent Gesture Law...

An opinion from the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas helped further shape the Peer Review Protection Act ("the Act") analysis by focusing on hospitals' efforts to improve the care they provide in ways that may not involve a traditional committee.  In the...

In an order issued July 25, 2013, a Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas judge dismissed a loss of consortium claim raised in a medical malpractice case by a same-sex couple.  The underlying case of Wolf v. Associates of Podiatric Medicine and...

A Court of Common Pleas judge in Monroe County granted a hospital’s protective order in part, holding that Plaintiffs may inquire about statements made by a medical quality officer to a patient concerning inconclusive results from peer-review...

In an opinion filed June 11, 2013, a three judge panel of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the State Board of Medicine's imposition of civil penalties upon a physician for failure to maintain medical records as required by the Medical Practice Act of...

Following a hearing last month, the Pennsylvania Senate has passed the Benevolent Gesture Medical Professional Liability Act.  Under the Act, statements and acts of contrition by healthcare providers, if made prior to the initiation of medical malpractice...

In accordance with the recently launched "National Physician Payment Transparency Program," also referred to as the "Sunshine Act," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin publishing online searchable information with regard to physician and...

In an opinion published May 16, 2013, the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, of Atlantic County held that a settlement reached in a personal injury case was enforceable; even though it's proposed Medicare Set-Aside had not been reviewed or approved by the Center...

In an opinion issued May 6, 2013, Philadelphia County Judge Mark I. Bernstein upheld a $78.4 million verdict that was awarded in a medical malpractice case approximately one year ago.  Among several issues raised on appeal, it was determined that the total amount...

In an opinion filed April 10, 2013, the Honorable Rosalyn K. Robinson of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas held that a pediatric cardiologist in New Jersey could be sued in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, given that 1) the defendant...

At the request of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, the Montgomery Bar Association has reconstituted the former Davenport Dispute Resolution Center into the new Alternative Dispute Resolution Program.  Hearings will now be conducted at the newly...

In an opinion issued on February 25, 2013, a three judge panel for the Superior Court affirmed a ruling by the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County permitting a plaintiff’s pathology expert to opine on the standard of care relevant to a general surgeon in a...

One year after obtaining approval in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Senate Bill 379, otherwise known as Pennsylvania’s “Benevolent Gesture” law, has been tabled by the Senate, subject to being called to a vote.  Released from the House of...

In an issue of first impression, Northumberland County Judge Charles H. Saylor has ruled that a physician being sued for malpractice may see the confidential settlement agreement between a plaintiff and a defendant hospital, if the physician is ultimately found liable...

In an opinion issued on August 16, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit certified two questions to the Supreme Court of New Jersey pertaining to the state's Affidavit of Merit Statute. Specifically, the court requested clarification on 1)...

On May 23, 2012, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted petitions for allowance of appeal filed on behalf of a defendant physician and her practice group, to address the Superior Court's analysis of the "error in judgment" defense in the underlying case...

In an opinion issued May 30, 2012, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that in the absence of other notice or communication of a demand, the filing of a praecipe for a writ of summons does not suffice to establish a “claim” pursuant to Section 715 of the MCARE...

On April 25, 2012, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in Mertzig v. Booth, et al., ruling that patient plaintiff would not be allowed to present expert testimony to bolster a medical malpractice claim...

In a three-judge panel’s decision filed on February 6, 2012, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, in Sayler v. Skutches, M.D., et al., 2012 WL 361400 (Pa.Super.2012), held that the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act did not statutorily...

In an order issued January 31, 2012, Judge Carol K. McGinley of the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas ruled that a judgment of non pros issued against the plaintiff in the case of Freed v. St. Luke’s Hospital, et al., was proper, thereby denying plaintiff’s...

On June 28, 2011, Governor Corbett signed into law SB 1131, commonly referred to as the Fair Share Act. The Fair Share Act pertains to joint and several liability of defendants in civil litigation matters, and in short, allows parties bearing only partial...

In an opinion filed on April 28, 2011, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the MCARE Fund was obligated to cover a shortfall in a plaintiff’s award in a case involving multiple joint tortfeasors who were held jointly and severally liable. The underlying case at...

On January 4, 2011, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held in Polyclinic Medical Center v. Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund, that the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund (MCARE) is not required to provide insurance...

A trial court judge in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania recently took the rare step of vacating a jury's verdict in favor of the defendant doctor following a medical malpractice trial. In her written opinion, Judge Judith L. A. Friedman stated that she granted the...

In a three judge panel’s opinion filed on December 21, 2010, the Commonwealth Court in West Penn Allegheny Health System d/b/a Allegheny General Hospital v. Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund (MCARE) and Kiana Townes, by Tamara Blanchard,...

United States District Court Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. recently had the opportunity to consider whether expert testimony in a medical malpractice action should be precluded on the basis of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow...

In Barrick v. Holy Spirit Hospital, Sodexho Management, Inc., et al., Carl Barrick was injured on the property of Defendant, Holy Spirit Hospital, when a chair he was sitting on in the hospital cafeteria collapsed on March 29, 2006. Barrick filed suit against...

In a three-judge panel’s decision filed on September 16, 2010, the Superior Court in Barrick v. Holy Spirit Hospital of the Sisters of Christian Charity, et al. affirmed the trial court’s order of October 16, 2009, which granted the discovery and production of...

The Pennsylvania Superior Court, in a 2006 ruling, held that a nurse was qualified to offer expert testimony in Freed v. Geisinger Medical Ctr, 607 Pa. 225, 5 A.3d 212 (2010). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court considered Freed in June of 2009 and the...

In Vicari v. Spiegel, M.D., et al., 605 Pa. 381, 989 A.2d 1277 (2010), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a medical oncologist was qualified under the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act, 40 P.S. sec. 1303.512 (“the...

In McLane v. Valley Medical Facilities, Inc., et al., Judge R. Stanton Wettick, Jr. denied plaintiffs' motion to compel defendant cytotechnologists to testify regarding their present review of slides which they reviewed in 2003-2005. Plaintiff-wife was diagnosed...

In Stimmler v. Chestnut Hill Hospital, 602 Pa. 539, 981 A.2d 145 (2009), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently had the opportunity to consider the effect of factual admissions on the grant of summary judgment in a medical malpractice action. The...

The number of medical malpractice suits filed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania dipped slightly in 2008. This decrease may be attributable to two reforms instituted in 2003. These measures included a requirement that a medical malpractice case be filed in the county...

On January 4, 2008, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania reinforced the liberal standard for qualification of an expert witness. In Novitski v. Rusak, on appeal from the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, the Superior Court affirmed the decision of the trial...

On September 7, 2007, in a unanimous opinion regarding MacNutt v. Temple University Hospital, 2007 Pa. Super. 279, 932 A.2d 980 (Pa. Super. 2007), lead by Judge Gantman, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reviewed the trial court’s refusal to allow the...

In Issac v. Jameson Memorial Hospital, 932 A.2d 924, 2007 Pa. Super. 250 (Pa. Super. 2007), the PA Superior Court was asked to decide whether Medicaid regulations (42 CFR §441.253 and 42 CFR §441.257 ), impose an additional legal standard in actions for informed...

On August 15, 2007, the PA Superior Court, in the case of Bowmaster v. Gerald Clair and Centre Community Hospital, held that the beneficiary of medical expenses paid by DPW for the care and treatment of a minor child is the parents of the minor child as it is the...

The Pennsylvania Commission on the MCare Fund submitted its final report November 16, 2006. The Commission, created by statute on December 22, 2005, “for the purpose of reviewing and making recommendations regarding appropriate and effective methods to address any...

A recently-enacted statute, which was signed into law by Governor Rendell, states that before a prevailing party or beneficiary in a law suit can receive the proceeds from any settlement or award, that party must provide to his or her attorney a sworn statement that...

A recently-enacted statute, which was signed into law by Governor Rendell, states that before a prevailing party or beneficiary in a law suit can receive the proceeds from any settlement or award, that party must provide to his or her attorney a sworn statement that...

On March 28, 2006, Governor Edward G. Rendell vetoed legislation that would have replaced Pennsylvania's long-standing adherence to the doctrine of joint and several liability, in which each defendant in a legal action is responsible for the entire amount of damages...

On January 4, 2006, New Jersey enacted A.1698, which involves disciplinary actions associated with physicians' licenses to practice medicine. This legislation complements the Health Care Professional Responsibility Reporting Enhancement Act. The new...

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives approved an amendment to the Pennsylvania statutes, which would deem any benevolent gesture or admission of fault made by a healthcare provider prior to the start of a medical professional liability action inadmissible as...

Legislation has been introduced in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly which would limit the recovery of non-economic damages in all medical malpractice actions to $250,000. This would include suits against physicians, hospitals, and long-term care facilities....