Posted on 08/18/2007 10:37:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
BARTOW, Fla. — A jury awarded $25.8 million Friday to the family of a cancer patient who was given a wrong prescription, had a stroke and died several years later, lawyers said.
Beth Hippely was prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, in 2002 to treat breast cancer. The prescription filled at a Walgreen pharmacy was 10 times what her doctor prescribed, court documents said.
The Polk County Circuit Court jury found the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain. The mother of three died in January at the age of 46.
A 19-year-old pharmacy technician, with little training, misfiled the prescription, according to court documents.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by Hippely, her husband Deane Hippely and their children against the Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. for negligent breach of duty and wrongful death.
"Beth Hippely died unnecessarily because this tenfold overdose with Warfarin by the pharmacy she trusted caused her cancer to come back with a vengeance and it interrupted all of her cancer treatments," her lawyer Chris Searcy said. "They have been seeking justice for almost five years and this was a case that screamed out for justice."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I’m all for those paying for their misconduct or negligence. But to make people like John Edwards wealthy beyond their dreams is inexcusable.
As long as we have the number of ambulance chasing attorney’s we do, who also give honest attorney’s a bad name, we will continue seeing outrageous setlements that end up costing all of us.
That my FRiend violates the Golden Rule. If you made that argument in my state, my objection would be sustained. Just how much would you price it at?
Not $25.8 mln. This is a verdict that should schock the judicial conscience and be found to be a miscarriage of justice.
We don't need tort reform. We need jury reform.
Exactly! I am so sick of the sob stories of how the poor lawyer gets nothing if he loses a case, therefore he HAS to take 33-95% of the settlements. I am all for the victim and their family getting compensated. There is absolutely nothing “just” about the lawyer getting millions on the back of the victims. Either loser pays or outlawing contingency fees would lead to much more justice. A lawyer can pre-negotiate a fee beforehand. Maybe $500,000 for the 10-20 hours worked on the case might tide him over.
Gee why do you think the layers have such a bad reputation? It sure isn’t because they are so honest.
I understand that the winner pays income tax on the gross amount of the award, then pays the attorney their agreed upon amount of 1/3rd or more on the gross amount of the award prior to taxes, and the winner gets the rest. Any attorneys out there that can shed light on this?
Are you a lawyer?
I have read of cases where the plaintives had sued for several million of dollars. When everything was done they didn’t even get $10. The lawyers got it all
There is no law regarding how much the lawyer is paid. It is a negotiation between lawyer and client. For a really good case, a lawyer my take a far lower percentage.
You folks have no idea how you have been misled by the insurance industry into blaming plaintiff's attorneys for jury awards. I love the comment earlier about the attorney putting in "20-25 hours" or so for a case like this. Most likely the hours run in the thousands, and the costs of complying with all the frivolous discovery and deposition requests will likely have the firm investing a million or more on the outcome. If they get a jury that has a religious zealot as its foreman, as happened once that I know of in Knoxville, TN, they might just decide that it was God's will that the woman died, and find for the defendant.
Litigation costs are driven by the defense, not the plaintiff. The awards have to reflect the costs else justice will be denied to someone who deserves it.
Yep. Generally, the only awards that are taxable are related to loss income...
Yep. I’ve gotten coupons from “class-action settlements” that I didn’t even know I was a party to. The scum-sucking lawyers used my name to extort millions of $ from Carnival cruises, then sent me a $50 off a full fare cruise coupon. Reading the fine print I saw the lawyers get 30 million, the “finder/filer” got 2000.00, and everyone else got worthless coupons.
I'd love to see that, care to share? Did you ever bother to think that a tactic of the defense is to make the cost of bringing the suit to conclusion so high that the plaintiff cannot afford to win?
You folks have no idea what the consquences of a loser pays system would be. Actually, usually when I see this statement, it reads "looser pays"...
I don’t believe that was allowed through, the pharmacy I worked at was scared senseless of warfarin sodium 1mg and 10mg. Either of those got extra scrutiny.
Don’t you remember the tobacco settlement where the lawyers claimed what amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars per HOUR in fees? I don’t have any sympathy for the “long hours” these scum suckers put in. All they are after is the big payoff. I laugh when I hear that a trial attorney DOES put in a lot of money and time and comes up empty. I wish it happened more often.
I don't understand the role of the 'pharmacy technician'. Other than filling Rx at a cut rate salary.
If we don't need trained pharmacists to fill prescriptions why have them at all?
Any trained pharmacist would have caught this mistake.
That said, I think the award is over the top.
Further study revealed that for a small additional cost, the car could be made a little more safe. And for a couple of hundred or so more dollars, it could be made significantly more safe from fires caused by that type of collision. However after weighing the costs against the costs of compensating those who would be burned by not adopting the safer methods, it was determined that the unsafe car would bring more profits.
When you have gutted the civil justice system and a company can calculate whether its negligence or intentional disregard for the lives of others is profitable, don't complain when you or a loved one suffer as a result.
And who is more despicable? The attorney that helps his clients hold the responsible party fully accountable, or the company that increases its profits on the knowing decision that their customers may be horribly burned?
That’s what I don’t understand about this. I understand the techs fill some of these but I thought the pharmacist always checked them before they went to the customer.
Iwo Jima is a lawyer and ALWAYS takes the lawyers side.
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