marcze@adelphia said:
Let's see...mitigate my damages...not doing the job during which the reinjury occurred, laying flat on my back for nearly all of the 3-day weekend (and many other days before that) having a friend cook and play "taxi driver" for me and my kids, living with a partially renovated house because all of that has been put on hold, watching my daughter's softball game from the car because I can't sit on the bleachers...? Hum, doesn't sound like I've done ANYTHING to try to improve my condition!
You do not understand what is meant by mitigate your damages and there is no way a competant malpractice attorney could have told you that you have a case, if you gave them all the facts. By the way, since you gave a copy of this thread to your attorney, it becomes discoverable and must be provided to the other party, so they will have all your admissions although these could be discovered by other means. So if your attorney is competent and ethical, they would have informed you of that fact and the implications.
Is this malpractice attorney a member of the bar in the jurisdiction, (Iowa) where the surgeon practices, not Colorado where you now live? I ask this because What is true in Colorado may not be true in Iowa and the size of the settlement you cited is quite small and would net you very little of any actual damages several years in the future, but most likely your case youd be dismissed with prejudice.
Did the attorney explain to you what the statute of limitations is for medical malpractice in Iowa? Actions against health-care providers must be filed within two years of the date that the act giving rise to the injury occurred. If the injured person did not discover the injury, suit must be filed no more than six years after the date that the negligent act or omission occurred, this does not apply in your case. That basically means that you will have to file a lawsuit no later that the date the surgeon testified in your divorce action, these are very specific dates, you will also be bringing suit against both surgeons since they shared a practice and both treated or consulted with you and you dicided to ignore the advice of the second surgeon who gave you restrictions.
Did the attorney explain to you the implications of your consultation with the surgeon's colleague subsequent to your recovery from surgery who gave you his opinion and restrictions and your decision not to include his testimony in a modification of your alimony?
You have made some bad assumptions and or received bad advice about your options by others and I suggest you consult a PI or malpractice attorney in Iowa and be totally honest with them in addition to contacting your divorce attorney re a modification and the w/c attorney in CO.
Did this malpractice attorney explain to you the responsibility you and your divorce attorney had when this change in circumstance developed? Instead, you chose not to pursue an increase because you felt that you would lose money because you claim that your ex's practice income was intentionally reduced. The problem is that if your claim was valid, your ex's reduction in income would not have affected your ability to ask for the increase if you had what you divorce attorney felt was valid evidence of disability at that time.
You then chose to work at a job that you knew or should have known could injure your back again, in addition to numerous other activities, any one of which may have lead to futher injury, hoping to get back at both your ex and his colleague. Your surgeon testified based on the facts and objective clinical findings at that time. By your own actions and admissions, his testimony was accurate. Now, you list a staggering number of activities you willingly undertook and brag about it.
You clearly state and this will become evidence in any potential action:
marcze@adelphia said:
Try being a single mom of 6 kids (4 of which are in the "talented and gifted" programs at school) who participate in 7 different sports (all of which I attend) and play 7 different instruments. Try being the treasurer at church, president of one book club and a member of two others, estate executor for my parents, week-end dog trainer, member of the Audubon Society, part-time children's portrait photogragher, part-time cateror and full-time friend. Now add to that the fact that I've taken on the renovation of my "new" house"
These are just a few of the questions you will have to answer if you even manage to get past the initial stages of a lawsuit.
While an attorney may have sent a demand letter or even made some contact that by no means indicates that you have a viable malpractice suit based on the facts and chronology you presented.
