Posted on 07/22/2010 10:42:13 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
When companies are found to have violated regulations that govern their industry, is it right that a jury of non-experts can award damages the amount of which will wipe the company off the face of the earth? That is a question that has been raised in a case recently decided against Skilled Healthcare LLC of California.
A class action lawsuit (lawsuit info here) brought by trial lawyers was filed late last year against Skilled Healthcare of California claiming that the company had violated state regulations that stipulates that nursing homes must maintain 3.2 nursing hours per patient, per day (ppd). The lawsuit claimed that the nursing homes operated by Skilled Healthcare often did not meet the requirement.
Interestingly, there was never any claim from any patient that there’d been harmed or put in danger. Not a single patient claimed personal injury before these lawyers began to file their class action lawsuit.
After a six-month trial the jury decided that the company did violate the rules and awarded the plaintiffs $613 million in statutory damages and $58 million in restitutionary damages.
There is a problem with this award, however. The company only has borrowing credit of $94 million. If the company were to be held to this outrageously high award it would go bankrupt and would be forced to close its doors...
Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...
Good. Lawyers got too greedy, so I hope it backfires on them.
Calif laws are established by unions aimed at employing their members, not at establishing standards for patient care.
The whole point to class action suits are to make the lawyers rich beyond imagination. For a member of the class, any settlement money is immediately subject to a 25% cut off the top for the lawyers, and 38% off the whole amount for the government, leaving a paltry 37% for the supposedly damaged member of the class. And you can see how 25% for every single member adds up for the lawyers.
No damage inflicted by the defendant in a class action can match the combined damage done by the lawyers and the government.
Punitive damages are a scam, designed for lawyers by lawyers. No punitive damages should go to a plaintiff, since that just means an additional 33% for the attorney. If they are assigned at all, they should go to a common fund, the purpose of which should be to alleviate the burden on taxpayers; all taxes should be reduced by the amount of punitive damages deposited to the fund.
And here's your doctor in the future.
This is what unions and weak management do to incentive, production, and efficiency.
Lawyer - Catfish........one is a fish and the other is a scumsucking bottom dweller.
Yep. Many people accurately diagnosed, even before the health care bill was passed, that a lot of experienced doctors would simply retire, either early, or not continue on past retirement age as long as they planned. And young people aspiring to be doctors would pursue other fields.
If being a doctor pays the same as being a receptionist, why go through all the school and the ongoing business agrivation?
What ever happened to Dow after that breast implant nonsense?
I typed ‘scumsucking bottom dweller’ into GOOGLE, and of the hundreds of pictures it found, only one was of a catfish.
Dow Corning went through this with breast implants. They prepared paperwork to file bankruptcy, and moved to have damages reduced. The Court did the right thing.
Well, hell, you musta hit the motherload! You probably found the ABA homepage....
That is not the point.
This is the point...
Interestingly, there was never any claim from any patient that there’d been harmed or put in danger. Not a single patient claimed personal injury before these lawyers began to file their class action lawsuit.
As long as the lawyers get their cut they don't care who gets put in the street or what businesses close or how many jobs are lost.
.
The California government set unrealistic demands and now they will run their health care system into the ground. That is the problem when the government dictates to health care institutions. Obama and his pals said they plan to run the private health care system out of business and after it collapses, institute the single single payer system the Left has always wanted.
When the goal is accomplished, watch all these high standards drop through the floor. Suddenly it will be wonderful to abuse and even kill the elderly and make them suffer with no legal remedies. This happens in Britian. It will be even worse in the US.
A class action lawsuit (lawsuit info here) brought by trial lawyers... claiming that the company had violated state regulations that stipulates that nursing homes must maintain 3.2 nursing hours per patient, per day (ppd)... often did not meet the requirement. Interestingly, there was never any claim from any patient that there'd been harmed or put in danger. Not a single patient claimed personal injury before these lawyers began to file their class action lawsuit.
“Coming Soon” [wanna bet?]
http://www.skilledhealthcare.com/Compliance/philosophy.asp
Many of these prima-donna regulations arrogantly assumed that we will continue to have a growing economy. Now the regs are greasing the skids of our fall.
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