Hardee County Florida woman charged with elderly neglect

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has announced the arrest of a Hardee County woman who has been charged with operating assisted living facilities without a license and neglecting elderly adults under her care.

The arrest followed a joint investigation by McCollum's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit's Patient Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) Team and the Hardee County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators said that Juanita Jackson Wright, 52, was operating three assisted living facilities in Wauchula without a license. She currently has two licensed facilities, but failed to get licenses for the three others.

Two of the unlicensed facilities were condemned in June by the county as unfit for habitation, which is the basis for the charges of neglect.

If convicted, Wright could face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

McCollum's PANE Team has played a key role in the investigation of this case. The group acts to detect abuse and neglect of elderly and disabled adults and ensure that efficient and effective health care is being provided.

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Jury Gives $114 Mil. in Winter Haven Nursing Home Abuse Case

The verdict is one of the largest ever by a Polk County jury.

Juanita Jackson died July 6, 2003, after staying at Integrated Health Services at Auburndale.

A lawsuit filed the next year claimed that Jackson's treatment at the facility led to her death.

The allegations included that Jackson was hurt after falling down and received other injuries from pressure sores, overmedication, malnourishment and dehydration.

A representative for Delaware companies listed in the lawsuit as operating the nursing home at the time of Jackson's stay, Trans Healthcare and Trans Health Management, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Blair Mendes, one Tampa lawyer representing Jackson's family, said the companies weeks ago stopped participating in the lawsuit after years of litigation.

A default judgment was entered against them on July 7, and jurors were asked to determine the amount of money in damages.

On Tuesday, jurors awarded $14 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages to Jackson's family, which includes three daughters and a son.

"We are going to try to collect," Mendes said.

Jackson's children declined a request for an interview but released a statement.

"We are proud that we fought for our mom, and we are glad that people recognized the suffering she went through. We hope this will help make sure no one else has to go through such a horrible experience."

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Decubitus Ulcer Treatment Pioneer

How one nurse helped stop killer bedsores

It sounds obvious today, but it took the work of an innovative nurse in the 1950s working with a group of elderly patients to realise it.

Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers, are lesions caused by a number of factors including unrelieved pressure.

The elderly and infirm are particularly vulnerable, with bony areas of the body particularly prone.

Relieving pressure

Before Doreen Norton carried out her research, nurses had over a hundred remedies on offer - but none worked.

Martin Johnson, professor of nursing at the University of Salford, said the work of nurses like Doreen had changed the face of patient care.

Her work, and that of countless other nurses over the last 50 years, is being celebrated next week by the Royal College of Nursing at its annual research conference in Cardiff.

Professor Johnson said that, before Ms Norton's paper, bedsores or pressure ulcers were a major killer of hospital patients and nothing seemed to help.

"If one had a bedsore on the sacrum (at the base of the spine) or the heel, there were about 150 different prescriptions that ward sisters would issue to remedy this. None of these were very successful.

"She was able to show that really the only successful way of treating pressure sores was to remove the pressure - really obvious!

"This had an immediate implication that the nurses had to turn the patients at least every two hours.

"And this was a study that that was based on science rather than just what people thought."

Kate Gerrish, professor of nursing at Sheffield City Hospitals and Sheffield Hallam University, said that the bedsore study had been seminal, reversing the practices of years for nurses like herself.

"Looking back, what we did was horrifying.

"I was taught to do certain things for bedsores that have subsequently been shown to be harmful to patients.

"When we were trying to prevent pressure sores we would put all sorts of things on their skin - including menthylated spirits and soap, and we would massage the areas.

"All that has been proved to be detrimental to patients."

Innovator

As well as altering the approach to bed sores, Ms Norton, who died two years ago, also helped design the King's Fund bed, an adjustable bed used in many hospital wards.

She said she had "always had a feeling for mechanical things", and her first job had been in engineering in her father's refrigeration engineering firm.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary, of the RCN agreed: "Nurses spend more time with patients than any other health professionals and so really understand patient needs.

"Due to this, over the last 50 years, nursing research has been instrumental in bringing about significant healthcare advancements. "

UC-Irvine Center Shines Spotlight on Elder Abuse

IRVINE – On any night in Orange County, a child or woman may suffer abuse, neglect or exploitation, while down the street a vulnerable elder endures mistreatment by a caregiver or other person in a trust relationship.

The situation involving the child or female will attract the most attention, but elder advocates are encouraged that there is growing awareness of elder abuse, particularly with the national health reform law addressing elder abuse issues and the observation of World Elder Abuse Day last month.

"We say elder abuse is 20 years behind both domestic violence and child abuse," said Mary Twomey, co-director of the Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect. The geriatrics program at UC-Irvine's School of Medicine houses the center.

"Elder abuse is finally getting the attention it deserves. People don't like to talk about getting old and about crimes against older people," Twomey said.

Celebrating five years of operation, the first-of-its-kind center -- established with a grant from the local Archstone Foundation -- has become a central, statewide source of technical assistance, best-practice information, multidisciplinary training, research and policy issues.

The Colors of Abuse

Unprecedented research from UCI's geriatrics experts examines the issue of inflicted elder bruising, often considered an unpleasant, misunderstood subject. "That information is answering basic questions for the first time in the field," said Twomey.

The three studies, under the direction of UCI gerontologist Aileen Wiglesworth, show that the cause of bruises can be remembered by most seniors, even those with memory disorders. A bruise can be almost any color on the day it appears, and it's nearly impossible to tell the age of a bruise by its color.

"The study to identify bruising patterns in older adults subjected to elder abuse is an important tool for law enforcement, Adult Protective Services and the (state's long-term care) ombudsman to protect our most vulnerable seniors," said Lynn Daucher, director of the California Department of Aging. "I am particularly proud that this effort has originated in Orange County."

The time for increased awareness of elder abuse has come, according to Carol Mitchell, program manager for Orange County Adult Protective Services. She said reports received by APS increased by 188% from 1994 through 2009. They continue to steadily increase, up from almost 4,000 in 1999 to nearly 7,000 last year. There were approximately 700 reports in both April and May this year.

"There is more awareness, and times are really hard for some people," said Mitchell. "People are calling; people are reporting."

Experts estimate that for each incident reported, five others are not. Nearly two million older Americans are abused each year, and studies show that between 2% and 10% of the nation's older adult population experiences abuse, neglect, financial exploitation or self neglect each year.

Abuse occurs in private homes, as well as commercial institutions. The most common type of abuse reported is self neglect, the failure to provide for one's own care. Individuals abused by others are most likely to have been neglected or financially abused, or both. The vast majority of abusers are relatives of the victims. The incidence of elder abuse increases significantly with age, with those ages 85 and older six times more likely to be suffering from abuse than those ages 65 to 69.

"We have a lot of support," Mitchell said, but with 43 social workers and seven supervisors, she's working with 17% fewer employees than she did in 2008. "They're great, well-trained," she said, "but we're unable to grow to meet the demand. We are, however, better prepared and equipped to deal with the problem."

Mitchell's office plays weekly host to the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center, another first-of-its-kind effort. The center is an independent arm of UCI's Center of Excellence and is dedicated to changing how abuse cases are investigated. Following an initial documentation, law enforcement, social workers, a geriatrician and neuropsychiatrist join forces. Representatives from nine local agencies work in a multidisciplinary team. UCI and APS are joined by the office of the district attorney, sheriff's department, public administrator/public guardian, the Anaheim Police Department and others.

"Our meetings provide consistency. Before, we'd have to muddle our way through the process," said Delrey McKenzie, veteran investigator for the Special Victims Detail of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. "Now we ask, as conscientious participants, 'How can we best triage this situation?'"

With UCI's center as a focal point, combined efforts of people sharing contacts and skills are putting a strong Band Aid on a problem that can otherwise feel mind-boggling to those dealing with it, McKenzie said.

No Time to Waste

"There's no way to know how many people are abused in America -- it's not just a Blue State or Red State issue," Twomey said.

The landmark, bipartisan Elder Justice Act, signed into law March 23 as part of health care reform, establishes new guidelines for dealing with elder abuse. "Now, we need to rally the troops. Now the real slugfest (to get funds appropriated to implement the law) starts," Twomey said. "Anything is better than what we had, which is nothing from a policy perspective. Ours is a small piece, but for us it's the biggest thing since Lady Gaga's last outfit."

The biggest thing will be procuring funding, according to Marie-Therese Connolly, an author of the act, attorney and elder abuse expert. Connolly -- a Woodrow Wilson senior scholar; former coordinator of the Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative with the U.S. Department of Justice; and director of the newly created advocacy group Life Long Justice -- has been involved with elder abuse for years, including participating in early drafts of the legislation almost a decade ago.

"We know a lot more now than when the law was written in 2002," Connolly said.

She said the legislation has the potential to safeguard individuals through the development of elder forensic centers, enhancing forensic capacity and coordinating agencies and disciplines.

Only part of the original Elder Justice Act survived to be included in the national reform law. Missing are provisions that were designed to improve the knowledge base through research, data collection and development of centers of excellence; to create emergency safe havens; to enhance law enforcement and justice system capacity to address elder abuse; and to expand training in some areas.

The UCI Center of Excellence, Connolly said, is a great example of what can be accomplished when a good idea and an understanding funder -- Archstone Foundation in this case -- come together. But, Connolly pointed out "success also requires a dynamic individual who has expertise, motivation, can inspire other people and put together a great team." She called UCI Program Director Laura Mosqueda "a significant leader and visionary, one of four leading geriatricians in the field and a dynamic force among collaborative partners."

"I've had enough of this attitude that, 'It's not abuse; he's just old, and old people bruise easily or fracture easily,'" Mosqueda said in a prepared statement. "It's time for us to stop thinking this way."

Connolly couldn't agree more. "We're a long way from where we need to be to deal with the rising risk of elder abuse due to the looming 'trifecta' of an aging population, more people with dementia and acute shortages of caregivers."

UC-Irvine Center Shines Spotlight on Elder Abuse - Features - California Healthline: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

UC-Irvine Center Shines Spotlight on Elder Abuse

IRVINE – On any night in Orange County, a child or woman may suffer abuse, neglect or exploitation, while down the street a vulnerable elder endures mistreatment by a caregiver or other person in a trust relationship.

The situation involving the child or female will attract the most attention, but elder advocates are encouraged that there is growing awareness of elder abuse, particularly with the national health reform law addressing elder abuse issues and the observation of World Elder Abuse Day last month.

"We say elder abuse is 20 years behind both domestic violence and child abuse," said Mary Twomey, co-director of the Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect. The geriatrics program at UC-Irvine's School of Medicine houses the center.

"Elder abuse is finally getting the attention it deserves. People don't like to talk about getting old and about crimes against older people," Twomey said.

Celebrating five years of operation, the first-of-its-kind center -- established with a grant from the local Archstone Foundation -- has become a central, statewide source of technical assistance, best-practice information, multidisciplinary training, research and policy issues.

The Colors of Abuse

Unprecedented research from UCI's geriatrics experts examines the issue of inflicted elder bruising, often considered an unpleasant, misunderstood subject. "That information is answering basic questions for the first time in the field," said Twomey.

The three studies, under the direction of UCI gerontologist Aileen Wiglesworth, show that the cause of bruises can be remembered by most seniors, even those with memory disorders. A bruise can be almost any color on the day it appears, and it's nearly impossible to tell the age of a bruise by its color.

"The study to identify bruising patterns in older adults subjected to elder abuse is an important tool for law enforcement, Adult Protective Services and the (state's long-term care) ombudsman to protect our most vulnerable seniors," said Lynn Daucher, director of the California Department of Aging. "I am particularly proud that this effort has originated in Orange County."

The time for increased awareness of elder abuse has come, according to Carol Mitchell, program manager for Orange County Adult Protective Services. She said reports received by APS increased by 188% from 1994 through 2009. They continue to steadily increase, up from almost 4,000 in 1999 to nearly 7,000 last year. There were approximately 700 reports in both April and May this year.

"There is more awareness, and times are really hard for some people," said Mitchell. "People are calling; people are reporting."

Experts estimate that for each incident reported, five others are not. Nearly two million older Americans are abused each year, and studies show that between 2% and 10% of the nation's older adult population experiences abuse, neglect, financial exploitation or self neglect each year.

Abuse occurs in private homes, as well as commercial institutions. The most common type of abuse reported is self neglect, the failure to provide for one's own care. Individuals abused by others are most likely to have been neglected or financially abused, or both. The vast majority of abusers are relatives of the victims. The incidence of elder abuse increases significantly with age, with those ages 85 and older six times more likely to be suffering from abuse than those ages 65 to 69.

"We have a lot of support," Mitchell said, but with 43 social workers and seven supervisors, she's working with 17% fewer employees than she did in 2008. "They're great, well-trained," she said, "but we're unable to grow to meet the demand. We are, however, better prepared and equipped to deal with the problem."

Mitchell's office plays weekly host to the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center, another first-of-its-kind effort. The center is an independent arm of UCI's Center of Excellence and is dedicated to changing how abuse cases are investigated. Following an initial documentation, law enforcement, social workers, a geriatrician and neuropsychiatrist join forces. Representatives from nine local agencies work in a multidisciplinary team. UCI and APS are joined by the office of the district attorney, sheriff's department, public administrator/public guardian, the Anaheim Police Department and others.

"Our meetings provide consistency. Before, we'd have to muddle our way through the process," said Delrey McKenzie, veteran investigator for the Special Victims Detail of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. "Now we ask, as conscientious participants, 'How can we best triage this situation?'"

With UCI's center as a focal point, combined efforts of people sharing contacts and skills are putting a strong Band Aid on a problem that can otherwise feel mind-boggling to those dealing with it, McKenzie said.

No Time to Waste

"There's no way to know how many people are abused in America -- it's not just a Blue State or Red State issue," Twomey said.

The landmark, bipartisan Elder Justice Act, signed into law March 23 as part of health care reform, establishes new guidelines for dealing with elder abuse. "Now, we need to rally the troops. Now the real slugfest (to get funds appropriated to implement the law) starts," Twomey said. "Anything is better than what we had, which is nothing from a policy perspective. Ours is a small piece, but for us it's the biggest thing since Lady Gaga's last outfit."

The biggest thing will be procuring funding, according to Marie-Therese Connolly, an author of the act, attorney and elder abuse expert. Connolly -- a Woodrow Wilson senior scholar; former coordinator of the Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative with the U.S. Department of Justice; and director of the newly created advocacy group Life Long Justice -- has been involved with elder abuse for years, including participating in early drafts of the legislation almost a decade ago.

"We know a lot more now than when the law was written in 2002," Connolly said.

She said the legislation has the potential to safeguard individuals through the development of elder forensic centers, enhancing forensic capacity and coordinating agencies and disciplines.

Only part of the original Elder Justice Act survived to be included in the national reform law. Missing are provisions that were designed to improve the knowledge base through research, data collection and development of centers of excellence; to create emergency safe havens; to enhance law enforcement and justice system capacity to address elder abuse; and to expand training in some areas.

The UCI Center of Excellence, Connolly said, is a great example of what can be accomplished when a good idea and an understanding funder -- Archstone Foundation in this case -- come together. But, Connolly pointed out "success also requires a dynamic individual who has expertise, motivation, can inspire other people and put together a great team." She called UCI Program Director Laura Mosqueda "a significant leader and visionary, one of four leading geriatricians in the field and a dynamic force among collaborative partners."

"I've had enough of this attitude that, 'It's not abuse; he's just old, and old people bruise easily or fracture easily,'" Mosqueda said in a prepared statement. "It's time for us to stop thinking this way."

Connolly couldn't agree more. "We're a long way from where we need to be to deal with the rising risk of elder abuse due to the looming 'trifecta' of an aging population, more people with dementia and acute shortages of caregivers."

UC-Irvine Center Shines Spotlight on Elder Abuse - Features - California Healthline: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Nursing Home Residents Voiceless in Kentucky

http://www.kentucky.com/voiceless/

Nursing Home Abuse Investigations Delayed

It's been 11 months since Johnson Mathers Nursing Home in Carlisle received the state's most serious regulatory citation in the May 2009 death of James "Ronnie" Duncan.

The Type A citation also was sent from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the agency that issues the citations, to the office of Attorney General Jack Conway, which reviews them for criminal wrongdoing.

Since then, no decision has been made to close the case or pursue criminal charges in the death of the mentally handicapped man who died from profuse bleeding in the brain after a fall. Staff members put Duncan back to bed and left him without treatment for three hours, according to state and court documents.

The Duncan case is one of eight nursing home cases that have languished for months and sometimes years as investigators try to determine whether to pursue charges.

Of the 107 serious citations issued by the cabinet's Office of Inspector General from December 2006 through 2009, eight cases are open and under review by the attorney general's Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control or local prosecutors, according to a Herald-Leader review.

Those eight cases have been pending for an average of 19 months.

Shelley Johnson, spokeswoman for Conway, said there is no specific time frame in which cases are resolved because of individual factors in each investigation. (Conway has been in office since January 2008.)

Police or coroners are not normally called to nursing home deaths in Kentucky, so there is no collection of physical evidence.

In addition, investigators' high case loads, staffing shortages and coordination with other law enforcement agencies have slowed some investigations, said Johnson. Other factors include high turnover of nursing home staff and difficulty finding witnesses.

At least two cases have been open for nearly three years and involve the same nursing home.

A June 2007 citation against Villaspring of Erlanger in Kenton County says that a resident developed sepsis when the facility didn't monitor pressure ulcers. In December 2007, nursing home officials were cited for failing to monitor a resident's dose of Coumadin, a drug that prevents blood clots.

"In the case of Villaspring, this office has conducted an extensive investigation involving the allegations of abuse and neglect," Johnson said. "Our investigators have also looked into other allegations of neglect at Villaspring that were not the subject of any Type A citation."

Because Villaspring is an ongoing investigation, state officials would not comment on specific details.

Kim Majick, a spokeswoman for Villaspring, said: "The attorney general's office fully investigated these cases, and Villaspring provided multiple charts, interviews, correspondence over that 21/2-year period, and we believe the cases after thorough vetting by the AG's offices are complete."

Type A citations from the state don't include the residents' names.

Other cases that are still open include those involving:

■ Woodcrest Manor Care Center. It's been 11 months since a serious citation was issued at the Elsmere facility, according to records from the attorney general's office.

After a resident experienced five falls in less than a month, Woodcrest Manor officials placed the resident's bed against the wall and put a floor sensor in the room so staff could hear if the resident fell. After that, the resident began scooting down and going over the end of the bed so the floor sensor would not sound.

Even though the nursing staff knew that, there was no evidence that the facility addressed it. On July 9, 2009, the resident was found three feet from the bed with a fractured spine and a hematoma to the head. He was taken to a hospital, where he died six days later. According to the attorney general's office, the case is still under review.

Woodcrest Manor administrator Bob Day declined to comment.

■ Prestonsburg Health Care Center. A citation was issued in June 2009 based on a case involving a resident who for two days was pale, sweating, clutching his legs in pain and yelling "Oh God." No one called a physician, the citation said.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/12/1345475/serious-cases-are-sometimes-pending.html#ixzz0tlLEi3N5


Abuse investigations tend to languish - Voiceless & Vulnerable: Nursing Home Abuse - Kentucky.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Investigations into Nursing Home Abuse in Kentucky Can Take Years

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that an investigation into a Kentucky nursing home is still pending 11 months after the nursing home received a citation for the death of a patient who did not receive treatment for three hours after a fall that caused brain bleeding. No decision to either close the case or pursue criminal charges has been made.

There are eight similar cases open in Kentucky, which have been ongoing for an average of 19 months each. Two of these cases have been open for almost three years and involve the same nursing home. The office that deals with these serious citations, the Kentucky attorney general’s office, has seen a 26 percent budget cut this year. Investigators’ larger caseloads are resulting in the many pending cases.Investigations into Nursing Home Abuse in Kentucky Can Take Years | The Huffington Post Investigative Fund: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

N. C. Nursing home faces lawsuit

As a nurse heads to court on murder charges in the morphine-related death of a patient, her Chapel Hill nursing home faces civil malpractice suits following serious injuries to two other patients.

Her husband, Marian Orlowski, died of pneumonia on July 16 at age 86. Two years earlier, his wife took him to Britthaven of Chapel Hill after a surgery at UNC Hospitals.

"Later on that same day, Dr. Marian Orlowski was found on the floor of his room," states a legal complaint filed by the Orlowskis' attorney. "He had fallen and sustained serious personal injuries, including a fracture to his left hip."

The suit accuses Britthaven of negligence, including failure to monitor Orlowski, who suffered from dementia according to the complaint, and not providing a bed with side rails.

Nursing home lawsuits:

Jury imposes maximum damages on Skilled Healthcare; nursing home chain faces upwards of $600 million for health code violations - ContraCostaTimes.com

Jury imposes maximum damages on Skilled Healthcare; nursing home chain faces upwards of $600 million for health code violations - ContraCostaTimes.com

Massachusetts' Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict of 2009 Was Turned Down By Massachusetts Lawyers - Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Massachusetts' Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict of 2009 Was Turned Down By Massachusetts Lawyers - Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Resident at nursing home dies of injuries | argusleader.com | Argus Leader

Resident at nursing home dies of injuries | argusleader.com | Argus Leader

Massachusetts Injury Plaintiffs Are Losing

Study Shows That Massachusetts Personal Injury Plaintiffs Are Losing Vast Majority Of Trials: Is That A Problem, And What's The Solution? - Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Massachusetts Jury Verdicts Down

BOSTON, MA -- Eight years later, James W. Gilden remembers the day he fell down the steps at the Dedham Probate & Family Court like it was yesterday.

The 70-year-old divorce lawyer from Sharon, a regular at the courthouse for more than four decades, lost his balance on the slippery marble floor and tumbled down several flights of stairs before slamming onto the landing below.

Gilden would go on to file a negligence suit in Norfolk Superior Court against the Trial Court and its chief justice for administration and management, Robert A. Mulligan.

"The steps were concave and slanted a little bit forward," Gilden recently recalled of the 2002 accident. "At a minimum, they should've put up some kind of warning. After that happened to me, they put no-slip strips on the stairs, but the trial judge refused to allow us to even bring that up in front of the jury."

Gilden said that ruling by Judge Thomas A. Connors dashed any chance he had of holding the court accountable for the injuries to his knee, which required arthroscopic surgery and months of painful rehabilitation.

But practitioners claim there was something else at play when the jury returned a defense verdict in the case last April: a deep-seated anti-plaintiffs' bias in Massachusetts.

In fact, a review by Lawyers Weekly of the civil verdicts rendered in Superior Court in 2009 shows that the deck is heavily stacked against tort plaintiffs, particularly those who go to trial in Norfolk County and other suburban communities. And the numbers are even more dismal for plaintiffs in medical-malpractice cases (see sidebar on page 27).

According to the statistics, only five of the 35 personal injury verdicts returned in Norfolk County in 2009 favored plaintiffs. The county's 14 percent success rate was 22 percentage points lower than Essex County, which had the highest rate of plaintiffs' verdicts, and 12 points behind the statewide average of 26 percent.

"A plaintiff's verdict is so rare here that when we have one, it's something people really take note of," Norfolk Superior Court Regional Administrative Justice Janet L. Sanders said. "Norfolk has traditionally been pro-defense, but there seems to be a more pronounced trend in the last few years, particularly the last two, where the numbers of plaintiffs' verdicts have dropped precipitously."

Superior Court Judge Patrick F. Brady, who regularly sits in Norfolk County, concurs with Sanders.

"This is certainly not the golden age of torts," he said.

‘A hard battle'

Lawyers Weekly collected the numbers for this story by running every Superior Court case tried in 2009 through the state's Trial Court Information Center database. Of those 700-plus cases, any verdict for the plaintiff, regardless of the amount of money awarded, was considered a plaintiff's win.

The only region in Massachusetts with a lower success rate than Norfolk County was the Cape and Islands, which saw eight of its nine tort trials decided in favor of defendants.

Brady, who specialized in products liability defense at the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish prior to his appointment to the bench in 1989, keeps a log of every negligence case tried in his courtroom.

Unlike the method used by Lawyers Weekly, however, the judge defines a plaintiff's victory as a verdict in which the jury awards a dollar figure that exceeds the plaintiff's pre-trial settlement offer. (Such data is not available on the state's database.)

"To me, beating the offer is the true measure of whether someone wins or loses," Brady said. "Those numbers tell you that it's a hard battle for a plaintiff's lawyer in any case where the defendant presents some sort of plausible defense. The plaintiffs will hardly ever win by my definition of a win."

Of the 151 negligence trials Brady has presided over since 1993 when he first started keeping track, only 16 have resulted in plaintiffs' verdicts, he said. In Norfolk County, only seven of 69 ended in favor of plaintiffs. Of the 52 trials he has heard in Plymouth County, 49 - or 92 percent - were decided for the defense.

Because the likelihood of plaintiffs attaining success is so remote, Brady said, he has seen far fewer personal injury cases - especially those involving car accidents and slip and falls - go to trial over the past three or four years.

Since Norfolk County started tracking its results in 2006, the few cases decided for plaintiffs have generally resulted in miniscule monetary awards, Sanders said.

"Over a four-year period, we're talking about only a handful of cases that have been big verdicts, in the hundreds of thousands," she said. "The plaintiffs' bar has admitted to us that they only come to Norfolk if they have to for venue reasons. They're not avoiding us because of our court; they're avoiding us because of the low verdicts."

When a lawyer has the option of filing outside of Norfolk County, the decision is an easy one to make, according to Robert M. Higgins of Lubin & Meyer in Boston.

In fact, he said, any attorney who would willingly try a case in Dedham when alternative venue options exist - knowing how bleak the numbers are - would be committing malpractice.

"Generally, the belief is that the majority of big verdicts in Massachusetts come out of the larger cities," Higgins said. "The further you get into suburbs - the Dedhams, the Barnstables, the Plymouths - the perception is that you'll get a more conservative, pro-defendant jury pool than you will in places like Worcester, Springfield or Boston."

‘Same wasteland everywhere'

J. Michael Conley, who represented Gilden in his Superior Court case in Dedham, said while the news out of Norfolk County is dismal for plaintiffs' lawyers, it's not a whole lot better in other parts of the state.

"What we're seeing in Norfolk, which is an affluent suburban community, is a subset of what we're seeing statewide," he said. "It's the same wasteland everywhere you go."

Like most of the judges and attorneys interviewed by Lawyers Weekly, Conley struggled to explain the precise reasons for the bleak results. The Braintree lawyer said one factor is the pre-conceived beliefs that members of the venire bring to trial.

"There is a lot of sociology behind it, but one thing that is going on out there is that there is a huge amount of anti-plaintiff sentiment in the populous and therefore in the jury pool," he said. "I don't think you'll find plaintiffs' lawyers in love with jurors anywhere in Massachusetts these days."

Because Massachusetts is one of the few states in the country that does not allow a meaningful voir dire process, lawyers have difficulty weeding out troublesome jurors during empanelment, Conley said, calling it a "good day" if he can get a judge to ask potential jurors whether they believe they would be adversely affected by a plaintiff's verdict.

Judge Brady, who meets with jurors at the conclusion of each of his trials, said juries tend to be hard on personal injury plaintiffs, "figuring that they've got their back problems, too, and that this is another one of those McDonald's suits about hot coffee."

In motor vehicle cases, meanwhile, many jurors mistakenly believe that insurance premiums will be negatively impacted by a plaintiff's' verdict, Wilbraham lawyer Francis W. Bloom said. That perception has prompted Bloom to steer clear of soft-tissue cases, which he gladly tried a few years ago.

"You have an uphill battle before you even stand up because there is no way a juror with that kind of bias can possibly sit indifferent on your trial," he said. "There is an attitude among jurors, particularly with the economy being so tough, that if they have to struggle, why should they be generous with the plaintiff?"

Sidebar:

While it was no easy task for personal injury plaintiffs in Massachusetts to prevail at trial in 2009, it was nearly impossible for them to win medical-malpractice claims.

According to a Lawyers Weekly review of every Superior Court case tried last year, nearly 90 percent of the med-mal disputes that went to trial were decided in favor of doctors.

In Norfolk County, all 12 of the court's medical-malpractice trials ended with defense verdicts.

"I was appointed to the bench in 2001, and I have never presided over a medical-malpractice trial that resulted in a plaintiff's verdict," said Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders, who serves as Norfolk County's regional administrative justice.

Likewise, Superior Court Judge Patrick F. Brady, who has presided over 28 med-mal trials since 1993, said he has had only one trial result in a plaintiff's verdict that exceeded a defendant's settlement offer.

Jeffrey N. Catalano of Boston's Todd & Weld, a med-mal lawyer who secured one of only 11 plaintiffs' victories in the state in 2009, said the prospects are so poor that several attorneys have stopped handling them altogether.

"There has been a lot of public-relations money poured into misrepresentations about lawsuit abuse, health care costs going up, and doctors leaving the state," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of it has been effective. There is real juror hostility toward patients and plaintiffs who choose to pursue these cases."Dolan Media Company -- Dolan Media Newswire Story

YorkRegion Article: 11.6% sent to private homes

YorkRegion Article: 11.6% sent to private homes