New York City Study Finds Medical Malpractice Mediation to Be Highly Successful

Posted on by
New York City Study Finds Medical Malpractice Mediation to Be Highly Successful

Image courtesy of stockimages / freedigitalphotos.net

An article published in Health Affairs entitled “Mediating Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Against Hospitals: New York City’s Pilot Project” discusses a feasibility study conducted with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation in which 29 lawsuits involving medical malpractice mediation were assessed.  The purpose of the study was to determine the plaintiff’s and defendant’s satisfaction level with medical malpractice mediation as an alternative for litigation in a medical malpractice lawsuit.  The results of the study suggest that everyone involved in the cases that were sampled found medical malpractice mediation to be an effective and useful form of alternative dispute resolution.

Authors Chris Stern Hyman and Clyde B. Schechter of Columbia Law School in New York City conducted the study and ascertained that satisfaction was high, even if a settlement was not reached in the process.  Among the sample cases, the average length of mediation was 2.34 hours.  Of the total number of sample cases, 13 were settled and the median settlement amount was $111,000.

One of the more interesting finds of this study is that attorneys from both sides of the dispute estimated that they spent approximately one-tenth of the time preparing for the case than it would have taken them to prepare for litigation.  Reducing attorney time and cost is one of the significant benefits to professional malpractice mediation, allowing disputants to not only achieve settlement quicker—but also at a much lower cost.  With court dockets that are often crowded, particularly in areas for which there are a high number of similar cases, medical malpractice mediation is often used as a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to litigation.

In a medical malpractice dispute, saving the image and reputation of a health care provider or facility is another high priority, making alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation a popular choice.  With absolute confidentiality and privacy, health care providers can use medical malpractice mediation to avoid the public eye that is always present in litigation.

February 3, 2013

Posted on by

How mediation has put Detroit bankruptcy on the road to resolution – When Detroit filed for bankruptcy, the case was expected to mirror others around the country: contentious with several years of pitched courtroom battles ahead.

Life After Divorce: Who Gets Custody of the Friends? – If there’s one life event that’ll shake out who your real friends are, it’s divorce. Still, many are caught by surprise when friendships crumble and people they thought they could count on seem to be taking sides, especially if it’s not their side. It’s hurtful and can make you do all the wrong things.

How to Tell Good Debt From Bad Debt – More than $856 billion of this is from credit cards — the average individual credit card debt is more than $15,000 — and more than $1 trillion comes from student loans (the average loan total is more than $32,000). So, if you’re looking back fondly at that New Year’s resolution you made several weeks ago to get out of debt for good, you shouldn’t feel alone. But you don’t have to remain part of this crowd. Folksinger/songwriter Woody Guthrie famously made and kept New Year’s resolutions. You can do the same regarding your debt.

January 27, 2014

Posted on by

I’m a Debt Counselor … and I Filed for Bankruptcy – Today, a debt counselor and financial adviser shares how, while solving his clients’ financial problems, he mismanaged his own money to the point of bankruptcy.

5 states with the highest foreclosure rates – Although the housing market is recovering in many regions, foreclosures reached a three-year high last year. Short sales and foreclosure-related sales — including sales to third-party buyers at public foreclosure auctions and sales of bank-owned properties — accounted for 16.2% of all U.S. residential sales last year, up from 14.5% in 2012 and 15.2% in 2011, according to the 2013 U.S. Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, released Thursday by RealtyTrac, a real-estate data firm. What’s more, the number of homes sold in December 2013 fell by 10% year-over-year to 5.17 million.

This is How to Get the Lowest Mortgage Rate – Most consumers know there is a multitude of factors affecting a mortgage rate such as property occupancy, loan program and even property type. However, there are other factors that carry the most influence on securing that new mortgage rate than any other factor, despite economic conditions.

January 23, 2013

Posted on by

Study: People prefer mediation in civil cases – People involved in civil lawsuits prefer mediation to nonbinding arbitration and like judge trials better than jury trials, a new study by a University of California Davis law professor concludes.

The Truth About Divorce? You Decide! – There is a significant ripple effect of divorce in society; divorce impacts not just the family in transition, the tentacles and effects are far reaching. There are both hard costs that are measured in dollars, and soft costs quantified by research – and immeasurable social costs.

Average 30-year mortgage rate dips to 4.39% – Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average for the 30-year loan declined to 4.39% from 4.41% last week. The average for the 15-year loan eased to 3.44% from 3.45%.

January 20, 2013

Posted on by

Your health: Is January National Divorce Month? – Some couples, as part of a fresh start to the new year, are heading to divorce attorney offices.

When Your Credit Score Is Too Low for a Mortgage – Mortgage lenders have tightened their credit requirements since the freewheeling lending days that led to the financial crash. Borrowers need, in general for a conventional mortgage, a minimum FICO score of about 650. Remember, the higher your credit score, the lower you mortgage interest rate will be.

US Property Foreclosure Filings At Lowest Annual Level Since 2007: Report – There were nearly 1.4 million default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in 2013, a report released earlier this week showed, with Florida topping the list of states for foreclosures, even as inventory dropped steeply from peak levels while the speed of the foreclosure process slowed to a record pace.

The Sky’s the Limit for Aviation Mediation as a Growing Subset of Mediation Practice

Posted on by

The Sky’s the Limit for Aviation Mediation as a Growing Subset of Mediation PracticeWhile once limiting its ADR practices to business-related disputes, the field of aviation is gravitating toward mediation in technical disputes, as well, opening up the door to an extended scope of practice. Such technical disputes can include everything from discerning liability for the failure of aviation equipment to disputes over parts and components.

The nature of the field of aviation means that in the process of conducting business, vendors and companies will work with a variety of players, all of which meet goals and regulations in performing their unique role in service and supply chain. These players include:

  1. Manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) who are responsible for the design, manufacture of, and testing of parts.
  2. Companies that sell and distribute components and parts.
  3. Companies providing the hardware needed in the manufacturing process.
  4. Individuals and companies providing maintenance, repair and overhaul for aircraft and other related devices.
  5. Airlines (both private and commercial) transporting cargo and passengers.
  6. Aircraft operators and pilots.
  7. Companies providing necessary services, including fuel supply, baggage support, passenger support, food vendors for flights and airports, etc.

From this list, you can see the scope of disputes that might occur in the field of aviation, and why aviation mediation has become increasingly widespread in recent years.

As the costs of fuel fluctuate due to unstable economies and world politics, aviation must focus its profits on cost-saving analyses. This is another benefit of aviation mediation, as its cost-saving factor makes it an attractive alternative to tradition arbitration and litigation methods of resolving legal disputes.

However, finding a mediator who is trained in the unique regulations and codes of the aviation industry is increasingly difficult for many companies, who find themselves involved in the enormously difficult and wasteful task of having to bring a mediator “up to speed” on some basics in the aviation industry. Therefore, finding an aviation mediator who has experience in both mediation and aviation is the “best of both worlds,” allowing companies to reap the truly time-saving and cost-saving benefits that mediation, as an ADR method, brings to the table.

Mediation is not always the best choice to resolve aviation-related disputes, especially if the loss of life has occurred. However, disputes related to fiscal loss and settlement are generally perfectly suited for aviation mediation, and have shown success in a wide variety of cases.