Brown and White Vol. 99 no. 37

              lehigh university doctor and lawyer battle over malpractice bsw photo by shawn roth dr stephen klasko are doing for fear of being sued klasko said as a result doctors aren't always choosing the best way to do things but the safest in terms of a malpractice suit being brought against them insurance companies lead to the vast majority of the problems and they are the evil doers not the lawyers shoemaker retorted another aspect in which they also agree is that the defense attorneys have nothing to gain by settling early so there are very few settlements made out of court it is very difficult to prove that a doctor failed to use the degree of care that was necessary or acted negligently so many law yers will only take cases their clients are likely to win most malpractice cases are based on contingency fees meaning that the lawyer gets paid only if their client wins it is next to impossible to get doctors to testify against another doctor and state that their peer acted in a negligent manner shoemaker said and the only person that qualifies in a medical malpractice suit as an expert witness is another doctor all of this makes the situation even more grim for the patient it's not the lawyer's job chris stanton 93 said doctors and law yers aren't the only ones to blame i think that all of this evidence proves that there is a major problem with in the system itself that needs to be corrected be fore things get even more out of control stanton said to say sue or not he continued we just try to bring some form of justice and payment for the wrongfully injured when a case goes to trial lawyers are up against the best insurance company lawyers and all their experts which makes it very difficult to win malpractice cases by jennifer steimke news writer why are scientists using lawyers instead of rats because there are more lawyers than white rats in auentown and there are some things that rats just won't do for money dr stephen klasko said this was the opening remark made in the great malpractice debate on monday for the sixth consecutive year attorney charles shoemaker and klasko debated the issue of malpractice shoemaker graduated from lehigh in 1976 and is now a business and law faculty member his opponent lasko graduated from lehigh in 1 974 and is an obstetrician and gynecolo gist at allentown hospital both say that the present system has gone crazy as a result of the astronomical number of malpractice suits that is costing society millions of dollars this year there were malpractice suits brought against 80 percent of all 08/gyns as compared to the 1970s when only 10 percent of patients brought suits the total cost of these suits is 528 mil lion a year and only 28 percent of that money goes to the patient the remainder goes to ward court costs such as hiring lawyers and expert witnesses of all the cases brought to trial 63 percent end up dismissed due to lack of merit and these alone account for 10 million contingency fees have exploded beyond what they were meant for and now they are a bait for people with a lottery mentality to go out and get money klasko said society's attitude now is that when something goes wrong someone has to be blamed klasko went on to say that factors that have also contributed to the problem are the medical and legal professions and the patients lawyers tell the medical profession to conduct better peer reviews so the bad doc tors can be weeded out then when a doctor is taken off the staff there are five lawyers ready to defend him when he sues the hospital for being kicked off one big problem is that doctors always have to look at the legal aspects of what they professor will visit russia to study exemplary author see russia page 4 1982 when she began researching him while in the soviet union at the time it was very hard to get information on him she said now because of all the changes his work is coming to light again and his story needs to be told nicholas is going to russia this summer for six to eight weeks to research the libraries and to talk to people such as pilniak's son who munist and believed in freedom of artistic expression because of his values and beliefs he was executed without a public trial in 1938 there were a lot of soviets who were much more radical and wanted all art to be in service to the regime nicholas said he was against that and said over and over that writers and artists be respon sible only to their creative talent nicholas has been on the trail of information about pilniak since a forgotten figure in russia due look at nicholas said what hap to the oppression of joseph stalin ' s pened to him is a metaphor for what what happened to author boris pilniak is a metaphor for what happened to that entire generation marynkhob assistant professor of modern foreign languages regime and those that followed happened to that entire generation he is a very complex figure pilniak author of novels in the and i think he ll be a good person to 1920s and 19305 was not a com by robert dellinger news writer a lehigh professor is travelling to the newly independent russia this summer to research the life and works of boris pilniak a contro versial soviet author of the early 20th century mary nicholas assistant pro fessor of modem foreign languages hopes to write a biography on pilniak nicholas said the research will reflect on how he has become brown and white vol 99 no 37 friday march 13 1992 b4w photo by shawn roth attorney charles shoemaker page9 it's friday the 13th what are you scared of ?