I recently was in Chicago for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals argument in a correctional health care case involving the death of a pretrial detainee. The federal district court had granted summary judgment to all defendants after mediation at which Plaintiff’s counsel had been unwilling to reduce his demand below five million dollars. The defendants hope the Court of Appeals will uphold the trial court’s well-reasoned 62-page opinion.
I was struck during the argument (which was divided three ways by defense counsel) by just how important it had been throughout the case that the numerous attorneys for all defendants cooperated so well with each other, as opposed to finger-pointing or trying to blame the unfortunate death on another defendant. By maintaining the goal of simply proving the reasonableness of each defendant’s conduct, the defense team eventually succeeded in establishing for the trial court that the prisoner’s death was totally unforeseeable and unpreventable.
The benefits of cooperation among defense counsel and the pitfalls of finger-pointing is one of the topics that will be addressed at DRI’s Medical Liability and Health Care Seminar March 10 and 11 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Morris Jensby of CHG Healthcare Services, Inc. in Salt Lake City and Russ Schell, an eminent trial attorney from Schell Cooley in Dallas will explore this topic in depth from the perspective of both the corporate health care client and trial counsel.