Flattening the Learning Curve for Healthcare Litigation

• Author: Aubrey Eyrolles
• Pages: 30-30

Published in Litigation News Volume 47, Number 3, Spring 2022. © 2022 b y the American Bar Ass ociation. Reproduc ed with permission. A ll rights reserv ed. This information or an y portion there of may not be copied or dis seminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

BOOK REVIEW

ort-based healthcare

litigation is a niche

practice area, and the learn-

ing curve can be very high

for new litigators, or even

more seasoned practitioners who

might be new to the subject mat-

ter. An Introduction to Tort-Based

Healthcare Litigation, written by sev-

eral members of the ABA Litigation

Section Health Law Committee and

edited by Caldwell G. Collins and

Robert A. Chu, gives a great intro-

ductory snapshot of various types of

tort-based healthcare cases and spe-

cialized considerations that litigators

will encounter while preparing for

trials in this area.

According to Kimberly Grant

Silvus, the author of the chapter on

experts, difculties can arise when

“[a] lawyer is suddenly supposed

to draw on a liberal arts degree in

literature or history and look at an

injured person, identify the specialty of medicine responsible

for the injury, spar in some intelligible meaningful manner

with experts on the other side in a deposition, condently

present her experts at trial, spar again with the experts for

the other side—this time with an audience—and then distill

the immensely complicated medicine in a persuasive com-

prehensible narrative for a jury.” Books and treatises with a

thorough overview on the practice area are thus extremely

valuable for new practitioners, particularly those with no sci-

entic or technical backgrounds.

An Introduction to Tort-Based Healthcare Litigation is an

excellent resource in that regard. Within the book’s relatively

short 134 pages, the authors cover considerations for litiga-

tion in several categories. Each of these chapters includes

an overview of that specic area of litigation, the causes of

action, possible defenses, and damages.

The book begins with a generalized discussion on medical

malpractice litigation. It then delves into three specic subsets

of tort-based healthcare litigation: long-term care, pharma-

ceutical product liability, and medical devices. The chapter

on long-term care litigation explains the highly fact-specic

nature of long-term care litigation and the specialized knowl-

edge needed for the types of injuries that long-term care resi-

dents experience. The chapter on pharmaceutical product

Flattening the Learning Curve for

Healthcare Litigation

An Introduction to Tort-Based Healthcare Litigation is available at http://bit.ly/LN473-tort-healthcare.

liability litigation outlines the Federal

Drug Administration’s drug approval

process. Finally, the chapter on medical

device litigation examines the “heavy

overlay” of federal regulations that

create unique theories and defenses

that are not present in general prod-

ucts liability law.

Detailing the importance of some

of the more technical details related

to tort-based healthcare litigation are

the chapters on statutes of limitation,

certicates of medical merit, venue,

and privilege. The chapter on medi-

cal experts advises on how to nd the

best experts and attack the credibility

of opponents’ experts. Other chapters

address procedural and jurisdictional

issues like removal, personal jurisdic-

tion, and federal multidistrict litigation.

While no book could cover the

entire universe of tort-based health-

care litigation, this book is an excellent

resource for any attorney new to tort-

based litigation in the healthcare eld. The authors’ discussion

of each topic includes references to a multitude of statutes and

case law from various jurisdictions, which makes the book a

great starting point for nding additional statutes and prec-

edent for each category of tort-based healthcare claims.

The book is written in a way that makes it easy to under-

stand these complex topics. It feels accessible and under-

standable even for the least healthcare-oriented attorneys.

Another great feature of the book is that it is written from

a position-neutral stance, which gives practitioners the abil-

ity to consider the issues regardless of which side of the “v”

they are on. It provides the reader with practical knowledge

and an understanding of how all the pieces of a case need to

come together.

Overall, An Introduction to Tort-Based Healthcare

Litigation is a worthwhile read for any lawyer who needs to

learn the basics in this eld. It is also a great resource for law

students who are considering tort-based healthcare litigation

as a career path but are curious as to whether they will enjoy

the practice area. The book describes the type of work that

practitioners in this area do on a day-to-day basis, and it is

incredibly rare to nd resources that give an understanding

of the full scope of a given practice area.

By Aubrey Eyrolles, Litigation N ews Contributing Editor

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