The jury did not take long yesterday morning to find for the defendant doctor in Thatcher v. Snook. (See my blog for April 24th.)
Plaintiff’s experts: Richard Arkless, MD (radiology) and Keith Harvie (orthopedic surgery)
Defendant’s experts: Carl Black, MD (radiology; Utah County) and Michael Wright, MD (orthopedic surgery, Oklahoma City).
Not to take any glory away from defense counsel, but these cases are much tougher to win for plaintiffs than the usual utah personal injury suit. People simply want to give their doctors the benefit of the doubt. I’ve tried many medical malpractice cases for the defense and a few for the plaintiff and have experienced this phenomenon many times.
I do not know of any plaintiff’s verdict in a medical malpractice case yet in St. George; if you do, please let me know. Of course, the same thing could be said of Logan– an even more-conservative venue– until Mike Worel’s big victory there two years ago.
