Recent Blog Posts

Gastric Bypass Surgery Malpractice

Steve Weinberg — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:43:00 GMT

Recently I have been receiving an increasing number of calls from patients and families of patients who have had serious often fatal, complications from gastric bypass surgery.

Making the decision to have any surgery requires that you know what you are getting yourself into. This could never be more true than elective major surgery such as gastric bypass surgery. While you will lose weight as a result of the surgery, there are some serious and potentially fatal risks that every patient should take into consideration.

Approximately 5% of gastric bypass patients have some kind of complication.

As with any surgery, knowing the benefits, and the risks, are an important part of every patient's decision before undergoing surgery.

Please read my full article on gastric bypass surgery malpractice.

If you feel you or a family member have been the victim of medical negligence please call me for a free consultation. I will be happy to answer any of your questions and explain all of your options to you.

Steve Weinberg Named to California Super Lawyers List

Steve Weinberg — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:43:00 GMT

I am honored to announce that I have been named to the California Super Lawyers List as one of the top attorneys in California for 2012. No more than five percent (5%) of the lawyers in the state are selected by Super Lawyers.

Super Lawyers, a top ten Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than seventy practice areas to have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-face process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers and independent research evaluation of the candidates, and peer reviews by past practice area.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, go to SuperLawyers.com.

I have represented the victims of medical malpractice, nursing home neglect and their families throughout the State of California for the last 35 years.

MediCare Never Happen Events Happen and they are Malpractice

Los Angeles Medical Malpractice Lawyer — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:16:00 GMT

In 2008 Medicare implemented a policy requiring hospitals to report the occurrence of what it described as "never events." These never events are bad things that should never happen to a patient while they are in the hospital.

California adopted this law and specified numerous adverse events that posed an urgent or immediate threat to the welfare, health, or safety of patients, personnel, or visitors, these are events that never should happen in the hospital. California law requires these be reported within twenty-four hours of the adverse event and they include surgery performed on the wrong body part, surgery performed on the wrong patient, wrong surgical procedure performed, retention of a surgical instrument during surgery, or death within twenty-four hours after surgery.

Just this month the State of California fined Anaheim Regional Medical Center Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) for performing kidney surgery on the wrong side of a patient.

These adverse events have been determined to be events that are preventable. These adverse events as described by California law constitute medical malpractice in addition to subjecting the hospital to state fines and Medicare penalties.

The reporting law also required the California Department of Public Heath make the information relating to adverse events reported by hospitals readily accessible to consumers effective January 1, 2009 and be posted on the State Department of Health website no later than January 1, 2015.

In the coming weeks I will provide additional information about specific adverse events as reported by particular hospitals.

For more information about the unfair MICRA limits and what you can do about them contact California Medical Malpractice Lawyer Steven Weinberg.

Medical Profession at Fault For Medical Malpractice

Los Angeles Medical Malpractive Attorney — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:19:00 GMT

It seems easy to blame patients or attorneys of the so-called medical malpractice crisis. The truth is the cause of the medical malpractice crisis is medical malpractice.

The results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998 estimated that 98,000 die each year as a result of malpractice committed in hospitals.

The prestigious Institute of Medicine published its findings in 2000 in which it estimated that in any given year more people die as a result of medical malpractice than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS.

The Congressional Budget Office in 2003 reported 180,000 severe injuries attributable to medical malpractice.

The nation's leading healthcare rating organization, Health Grades, in 2004 reported that more Americans die as a result of violation of patient safety rules every six months than died in the entire Vietnam War.

Sadly, there is a medical malpractice crisis in this country, its cause is not lawyers or lawsuits, but is in fact medical malpractice. The real question is how does limiting the rights of the victims of medical malpractice make medicine better? It does not.

Reducing the rights of patients and their families will not result result in less medical malpractice, only better medical practices will reduce the cost and incidence of medical malpractice.

If you have been affected by medical malpractice, contact a Los Angeles medical malpractice attorney today.

Several State Supreme Courts Have Held Caps on Damages Unconstitutional, but Not California

Los Angeles Medical Malpractice Lawyer — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:12:00 GMT

The Supreme Court in several states have recently found damage caps in medical malpractice cases to be unconstitutional. These sates include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, , Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tex, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin.

A state law signed into effect in California in 1975 in the face of intense lobbying by a powerful insurance lobby and a manufactured insurance crisis set a cap of Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. There is no provision to adjust the cap for inflation. If the Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) were adjusted for inflation that limit would be more than One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) today. At today's rate, Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) is the equivalent of about Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000.00) in 1975.

This law, called MICRA, has a disproportionate and unfair impact on people who have little or no income including children, the elderly, stay at home parents, and working class Californians.

With California medical malpractice insurance companies racking up record profits, clear documented evidence that medical malpractice is not driving the rate of increased health insurance and that there is no difference in medical negligence insurance premiums between states such as California that have caps on damages and states that do not, it is time this unfair, unjustified and draconian law be vanquished.

Caps on Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases Harm Patients and do not Reduce Premiums

Los Angeles Medical Malpractice Attorney — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:16:00 GMT

In 1975, the California Legislature past a law known as MICRA, which among other things limits the compensation (damages) a victim of medical malpractice or their surviving family may obtain to $250,000.00 for non-economic damages for pain and suffering, or in the case of the death of a family member for loss of love and affection. These human damages are the real loss victims and their family members suffer when a doctor is negligent. There are no similar limitations on damages for injuries due to any other type of negligence in California.
Studies have shown that these caps on damages harm victims and do not reduce the premiums doctors pay for medical malpractice insurance.
The MICRA caps have never been increased for inflation. The $250,000.00 limit in 1975 dollars is now the equivalent of about $61, 383.00 in 2009 dollars.
The tragic consequences of the MICRA limitations are seen first hand in the award winning video, “The Truth about MICRA”.
For more information about the unfair MICRA limits and what you can do about them contact California Medical Malpractice Lawyer Steven Weinberg 888-381-0561.

Welcome to our Medical Malpractice Blog

Medical Malpractice Attorney — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:08:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Medical Malpractice Blog with an RSS feed available at Blog/Entire-Blog-Feed/RSS.xml