“First, Do No Harm”. This is the first principle attributed to Hippocrates as part of the ancient oath of the medical profession. It expresses a fundamental ethic that should guide the practice of every physician. Today, medical science and technology have evolved to permit medical practitioners to stop or slow the progress of many life threatening diseases. The […]

Over the past year, Minnesota Litigator readers have been barraged with news of appellate decisions from the Minnesota Court of Appeals in which plaintiffs lose professional malpractice claims for failure to meet the requirements for affidavits of expert review (see here and here, for example).

Readers of this blog and those in the Minnesota medical malpractice bar are well aware of Minnesota’s statutory requirements for medical malpractice claims. Today, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an opinion (by Judge Louise Dovre Bjorkman, appointed by Gov. Pawlenty to the Court of Appeals in June, 2008, and joined by Judge Jill Flaskamp […]

A rather straight-forward statutory requirement of an affidavit of expert review to be filed with a medical malpractice lawsuit has resulted in the dismissal of many putative malpractice actions and, today, another one bites the dust.  (A similar requirement provides a threshold defense for other professionals under Minnesota law, here.) In today’s decision by the […]