United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Could anyone let me know if you settled out of court BEFORE trial began. My lawyer told me that these cases never settle before. My other concern is that they said there are two ways to litigate 1. high risk preg that was not noticed and 2. labor and delivery (which is mine) when basically the doctor &#@*() up! He also said that the labor and delivery cases win about 4 in 10 cases.....pretty sad that these doctors who clearly messed up walk away with a smile and two perfect arms!!

I know of 2 people that settled out of court THE DAY OF THE TRIAL. GOOD LUCK.

we settled 3 days before trial

We settled out of court....what a relief.

FYI,
Several weeks ago I attended an open pulic hearing in the Connecticut State Legislative Offices to discuss putting a cap on the "pain and suffering" portion of malpractice settlements. As part of the discussions, it was mentioned that (these are approx numbers) 360 malpractice suits were settled last year. 320 of them were settled out of court. Of the 40 cases that went to trial, the docs won 60% (or 24) of them.
Bob (Father to Alex 3 1/2 L-OBPI)

We settled just one month before trial.
LeeAnne

We settled out of court 2 weeks before trial. Sometimes the two sides will negotiate during a mediation (our "mediation" was a waste of time).

My lawyer said most of these cases settle out of court. He also said that we didn't want to go to trial, because most of the parents lost. Sad, isn't it? We did settle out of court even before we had a trial date. It was after our deposition, when I think the truth became apparent, that the doc's lawyer's decided to negotiate a settlement. Either way, it's an incredibly stressful time, like no other. I CAN'T IMAGINE what it would be like to go to trial and lose. Like being raped I think.....

They will try to settle out of court if they think they don't have a strong case, and on the other hand, if they think they can win, they will go to trial.

They would rather than settle than loose in court!

A jury trial is definately a HUGE risk- even when you have a very strong liabiltiy case against the Dr., and a serious permanent injury to the child; because you just don't know what the jury is thinking in their heads... until the verdict is actually read outloud.

Thankfully with the guidance and skill of our excellent attorney's and God above our jury saw through the defense's so called expert witness who claims that these injuries "just happen" inutero by the forces of natural labor!
We also went through a mediation session- to no avail, so we took our case to trial in a VERY conservative Dr. friendly city. The defense had us wait all morning the first day of trial to see if they could come up with more $$ to offer us to settle, but after lunch the judge said "enough is enough... call the jury". They do seem to wait until the very last minute to even offer $$ at all.
It is a scary road to travel, no matter what. Taking the risk to pursue legal action was HUGE for us- but knowing that we were doing what was right for our child is what kept us going. Knowing that WE were the ones telling the truth- NOT THEM- is what kept us sane. Our Dr. was not walking out of there smiling- neither was his attorney.