Articles Posted in Real Cases

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

XIII. PRIOR DEMANDS FOR SETTLEMENT
A. DR. X., M.D.:

Dr. X. has a policy limit of $1,000,000. On July 28, 2003, plaintiff served on Dr. X. an offer under CCP section 998, in the sum of $1,000,000.00. There has been no response.

B. ABC HOSPITAL:

ABC Hospital is insured by XYZ Insurance, Ltd., with a policy limit of $107,000,000, for each annual occurrence. On May 28, 2004, plaintiff served ABC Hospital with an offer under CCP section 998 in the sum of $1,250,000. There has been no response.

C. DR. Z., M.D.:

Dr. Z. is insured by Socal Mutual Insurance Company with a policy limit of $2,000,000 per incident. On March 1, 2004, plaintiff served Dr. Z. with an offer under CCP section 998 in the sum of $195,000. It was rejected.

D. DR. Y., M.D.:

On July , 2004, plaintiff served Dr. Y. with an offer under CCP section 998. There has been no response.

IVX. OTHER JURY VERDICTS

The following jury verdict may be of some assistance:

Fox v. Ramano Roe, M.D and Simi Valley (1998)

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(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

XV. LIFE CHANGE

Since being diagnosed as a quadriplegic, Mr. Smith’s entire life has changed. In his deposition on page 184, lines 10 through page 189, line 4, Mr. Smith testified how dramatically his life has changed:

“A. My life has changed. I lost control of my bowel movement. I have accidents two or three times a month.
I lost use of my legs and my left hand.
I can’t work because as a plant supervisor there are no other job at this time. I worked a lot. I spent a lot of money on my backyard building a fish pond and building water falls, put a lot of trees in, a lot of bushes in so I could take care of them when I retired and I can’t do that now and that’s what I planned on doing when I retired, but now most of it is lost.
I can’t drive so I need to have somebody to help me every time I go somewhere.
When I get up, I have a hard time dressing myself. I need to do that while I’m still in bed to get my pants on. I have trouble getting in my wheelchair on my own. I can do so, but I wouldn’t want to do it without somebody being there.
My bathroom, I need extra room and I had to lower everything down in my bathroom so I could shave and clean myself and shower.
The toilet, I need bars on there and I have had a hard time getting off and on.
I need to stimulate my bowel movement every morning in order to have a movement, which we already talked about.
If I take stool softeners, which I’m supposed to do, I have more accidents and that’s probably one of the worst things that happened to me in this whole thing, I think, is my own personal – – is having a bowel accident. I have to, you know, and it’s just – – I go to pieces when that happens.
I have a three-inch hole in my back that needs to be changed three times a day. I put down two, two or three times a day. Someone has to – – my son has to do it now.
I take a lot of pain pills, the Vicodin, because of my pain in my back and my legs hurt a lot. I wake up during the night hurting a lot and have a lot of leg spasms.
I feel a lot better now since I came back from Palo Alto, though, this time. I have a better attitude. I’m trying to work towards trying to have a better attitude making myself – – before I went to Palo Alto, I was – – laid in be all the time and I didn’t do nothing besides lay in bed and feel sorry for myself. I’m trying to change that.
Just dressing, I need to rest afterwards. It’s a shame here, I try to dress myself, then I have to rest, you know, because I get tired. Taking a shower I get tired which don’t sound like it makes sense, but I get so tired.
Just sitting in a chair sometimes I get so tired and so sick, I have to lay down. If I lay down a couple hours I feel I can get back up like today I went pretty good.

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(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

I planned on traveling a lot when I retire. And along with my backyard, I planned on traveling and now I have to make special plans. I don’t know what I’m going to do about traveling. I know I have checked into airlines. I can’t travel with the wheelchair. I just don’t have the desire like I did before. I hope I can get that desire back. I want to travel and do things.

I spend a lot of my time in my room doing nothing where I used to keep busy. I was never, you know, kids think I was a workaholic. I couldn’t sit down more than 10, 15 minutes. I’d never watch TV, because I would always get up and do things out in my backyard. Now I just seem to sit all the time.