Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

Washington Pattern Jury Instruction  105.08 A physician is not liable for selecting one of two or more alternative courses of treatment if in arriving at the judgment to follow a particular course of treatment, the physician exercised reasonable care and skill within the standard of care the physician was obligated to follow. This instruction should be eliminated as a biased statement in favor of a defendant doctor. It is difficult to deal with but here are some suggested idea for…

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A common defense in medical malpractice cases is to assert the cause of the injury was an unintended outcome following medical judgment regarding acceptable choices between alternative medical judgments. Some states, like Washington, approve a jury instruction on this concept. Washington Pattern Jury Instruction 105.08 “Exercise of Judgment” provides: “A physician is not liable for selecting one of two or more alternative [courses of treatment] [diagnoses], if, in arriving at the judgment to [follow the particular course of treatment] [make the particular diagnosis], the…

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I’m providing an outline from a trial several years ago involving a medical malpractice case. The case involved the birth of a child which was supervised by a midwife and then transferred to a hospital for the birth. I would make revisions in this outline if I were to try the case today. However, I wanted you to see an actual format that would allow you to make your own revisions for a similar case tried today. In addition, there…

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