Damages: One Family's Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine

by Barry Werth

Book Overview

Damages is the riveting true story of one family's legal struggles in the world of medicine. At the urging of a friend, the Sabias filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Humes and Norwalk... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425168638
• ISBN13: 9780425168639
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!

I am a college student studying to be a medical assistant. I had to write an essay on a specific medical lawsuit for my class "Medical Law and Ethics." I have not read a nonfiction book in years, but once I started reading this book I could not put it down. It is so stimulating, exciting, and brilliant. Mr. Werth had little to work with since there was no court room drama. He did a spectacular job with the resources he had. He is indeed an intelligent writer. I wish him well.

Buy this book!

This is a wonderful book for anyone involved in the litigation process or anyone involved in the health care field. I am a structured settlement consultant who works with personal injury attorneys and some insurance companies. This is the best book I have ever seen about the process. I have purchased over 200 copies of the book to give to trial attorneys, claims professionals and other structured settlement professionals. All love the book. It reads like a novel.Don McNay...

Brilliant !

"Damages" by Barry Werth is a compelling and incisive study of the anatomy of a medical malpractice case, as seen from all sides. A real page turner. Most impressive is the exhaustive and comprehensive work done by the plaintiff's legal firm, and the in depth and understandable explanations by the author of the medical facts, the legal strategies, the context of the times, the world of medical experts, the role of insurance companies, and the lives of those injured. Beautifully written. "An education" is the only phrase that keeps coming to my mind after completing this gem of a book. Read it ! You'll learn a lot and it will help you.

I am recomending this to my associates. And my mom

I spend a great deal of time as a defense lawyer explaining how the system works-- to the associates in my office, to clients, to lawyers from outside the US. "Damages" is going to find its way into a lot of these discussions, and everyone who works for me is going to read it. I am also going to send a copy to my mom.Barry Wirth's book is impressive for the way it gets the law stuff (and the medicine too, I think) mostly dead on, but beyond that, this is also a great read, with interesting, well drawn characters that one ends up caring about.In many ways, "Damages" is a better book than "A Civil Action", which it resembles. The legal tactics are explained, rather than merely used to illustrate the flamboyance of the attorneys. More importantly, the case itself, a so-called "bad baby" case concerning the catastrophic injuries sustained as a result of claimed medical malpractice, is something anyone who reads a daily newsp! aper will be able to relate to. The book gives the best picture I have ever seen of how patients become clients, how prospective clients are screened by law firms, how discovery strategies are developed, how cases are evaluated (by both sides) and how settlements are negotiated. I could teach a course around this, and, in fact, I just might.I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered how the damage awards they read about in news reports were arrived at, or thought about what the human consequences of a serious injury might be.

Fascinating story of a family's personal and legal struggles

This true story grabbed me immediately. Barry Werth does a very good job of bringing to light the many sides of what initially appears to be a straightforward case. Without playing favorites, he manages to get the reader to alternately feel for one side, then the other. Despite the legal and medical jargon found throughout the book, I never felt lost or became bored. Reading this puts both the legal and medical systems in a new light.