Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association Propaganda In Delco Times

Q: Anybody see the letter to the editor the other day in the Delaware County Times? It was from somebody talking about patients rights. At no point in this letter, however, did the writer mention that he is a member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the same people running ads on KYW1060.

A: -If the author of that letter did not disclose that he is a trial lawyer, then how do you know he is a lawyer? Also, why isn't anyone complaining about all the gross medical errors that help increase the number of medical malpractice payouts in Pennsylvania such as the situation last year at Saint Christopher's hospital where dozens of people had their blood thickness measured incorrectly? -Forgot to address the other part. Admittedly there are problems, but this sort of thing could occur in any state. A big problem (and this info comes to me from a doctor who has seen it first hand) is countless frivolous lawsuits brought by prisoners. Bored prisoners with nothing else to do file charges of imagined malpractice, tying up the system and bringing even more money to the lawyers. You think the lawyers running

these ads and writing these letters give a damn about patients? No, they give a damn about getting as much money as possible. And when all but a few doctors and trauma centers are gone, what do they care? They have enough money to go to a state where treatment is cheaper. -This is propaganda from the other side - the physician side. The lawyers who take these cases don't get paid unless they win, so they're not going to take these so-called frivolous cases unless they think they can win. And judges are free to throw out frivolous cases as well. Doctors think they're different from the rest of us when it comes to accountability for our professional actions. They're not.