This morning, August 25th, Judge Su Chon heard arguments on the defense motion for new medical malpractice brain injury trial in Scott v. University Hospital, an $11,000,000 verdict later reduced to $6,000,000 due to the non-economic damages cap under the Utah Medical Malpractice Act. (See my posts for August 11, July 23 and April 21)
Troy Booher argued the defense position; Charlie Thronson argued for the plaintiffs.
My sources tell me that Judge Chon seemed critical of certain points raised by plaintiffs’ counsel in closing argument, such as appeals to “community standards.” In one exchange, Judge Chon asked Mr. Thronson: “Given that the Court has already determined that [plaintiffs’ co-counsel] crossed the line at some point and violated a motion in limine, why shouldn’t the court hold him accountable for that?”
However, as I have said before, I remain skeptical of this motion being granted by the trial judge, simply because the inappropriate argument may well have had no effect on the jury’s decision. We shall see. Judge Chon will release her decision in a phone conference with counsel on September 23rd.
