INsight | Punitive Damages in Personal Injury Cases

Daren Niemi, from Sweeney Law Firm, stopped by the studio to talk about the process you can expect when coming to Sweeney Law Firm to pursue a claim. You can catch Daren, along with other guests, on ABC's INsight. Access the video transcript here or download the full transcript here. Tony Betton (00:00:00:00 - 00:00:15:18): Hey, everyone. Welcome back. You are watching inside right now. We are here with attorney Darren Niemi, with Sweeney Law Firm, to be able to continue our discussion on medical malpractice. Now, Darren, again, it's a pleasure to be able to be here as we continue this conversation and discuss what exactly is medical malpractice. Tony Betton (00:00:15:18 - 00:00:26:02): I wanted to be able to know more about the process. Right. So being able to figure out how to pursue this claim, because I'm sure it's a lot of steps and a lot of things that go into it. Tell me a little bit more about the process. Daren Niemi (00:00:26:02 - 00:00:36:21): Absolutely, Tony. So the process starts when we initially get contacted by either a patient or their family who have questions about the medical care that they have received. Daren Niemi (00:00:36:22 - 00:00:52:18): So what we do is we schedule an interview and we ask them to provide as much information as they can, as they have at that time. Now, oftentimes they don't have all the information with them, but we try and get as much information at that time. Tony Betton (00:00:52:18 - 00:01:00:13): Now, when it comes to certain circumstances that people are maybe dealing with, what are some of the circumstances that people could possibly come in contact with? Tony Betton (00:01:00:18 - 00:01:04:02): Like you said, I mean, it's a lot of medical records that you guys are dealing with. Daren Niemi (00:01:04:02 - 00:01:31:16): Absolutely. So, again, when we have to pursue these claims, what we are looking for is what is contained in the medical records. So after we've had that that interview with the clients to look through to get that information, we get the medical records and now the medical records are going to have all the information that we need so that we can send those out to our experts to review and let us know what exactly it is we are looking at in this specific circumstance. Tony Betton (00:01:31:16 - 00:01:42:08): Okay. In those cases, I mean, is it difficult for people to try to be able to transfer those medical records? Is this just something that's just too easy request or when it comes to the way that you guys are using them? Like you said, you have to go through a lot of information. Daren Niemi (00:01:42:08 - 00:01:48:03): So absolutely, we do. And what we do is we actually get the medical records ourselves. Daren Niemi (00:01:48:05 - 00:02:11:18): Once we compile all those records together, then we are able to send those off for physicians to review. It's a very difficult process to do on your own. So that's why we take we take the reins there and we go forward. We get our experts involved here early. We want to have them go through those those records and really point out in detail this is where something went wrong. Daren Niemi (00:02:11:23 - 00:02:16:08): This is why it went wrong. And this is the effects that it had. Yeah, Tony Betton (00:02:16:08 - 00:02:28:22): you mentioned it being a difficult process. So if someone is saying, hey, is this going to be something that's a speedy process? Is this going to be something that I can get taken care of rather quickly? I guess it could kind of vary depending on the severity of the case, depending on how many records. Tony Betton (00:02:29:02 - 00:02:35:07): But if someone's coming in saying, how difficult is this process? We know that it is difficult, but what can they look forward to having to deal with? Daren Niemi (00:02:35:07 - 00:02:44:00): Well, we fight. Okay. This is not an automobile accident claim where I just get to send off a letter to an insurance company. We are dealing with hospitals. We are dealing with doctors. Daren Niemi (00:02:44:00 - 00:03:03:18): They are going to fight us tooth and nail every step of the way. And so at that time, it's not something that we are going to be able to resolve just in a matter of weeks here. This takes time to build the case. We have to build it up from every step. And we do that. And we have a good record of success because of how we know how to handle these claims. Tony Betton (00:03:03:20 - 00:03:18:01): Wow, that's a lot of information. Is it? Definitely some hard truth in there, but important to be able to address this is not going to be an easy process. May be difficult. It may take some time. Anything, lastly, that you want to kind of want to tack on or add on when it comes to the process of medical malpractice? Daren Niemi (00:03:19:01 - 00:03:29:15): Absolutely. I would just say give us the opportunity to work those claims and be patient with us. Again, these are difficult claims and they take time, but we succeed in them. Tony Betton (00:03:29:15 - 00:03:34:06): Yeah, allow some time, have that trust and know that getting the job done. Thank you so much, dear. We appreciate you. Daren Niemi (00:03:34:06 - 00:03:35:02): I appreciate it, Tony. Tony Betton (00:03:35:02 - 00:03:37:09): Everyone, take a look at your screen right now. Tony Betton (00:03:37:09 - 00:03:48:06): You can find out more information about any law firm breaking down the process of medical malpractice. If you feel like this is something that you may be dealing with, you've got some questions. Go ahead. Reach out. We'll be right back.

Dave Farnbauch sits down with ABC's INsight to talk about the changes to the court system in light of COVID-19. You can read the full transcript below, or access a PDF of the transcript. Charity: Welcome back to INsight. I'm here with Dave Farnbauch from Sweeney Law Firm. We're going to talk today about what's happened in the court system since the COVID-19 pandemic. Is it safe to assume that there haven't been many jury trials since the stay-at-home order happened in late March and since everything that's gone on? David Farnbauch: Right. Just like every other, institution and organization, the court system has been impacted by COVID. And I'd say the biggest change that I've seen is the courts issuing orders this spring to put sort of a moratorium on jury trials. There have been some bench trials. That's where the judge is there. The courts have actually been very creative. I've heard of some trials by zoom. But the big change is putting potential jurors at risk by bringing them into a courthouse and putting them amongst other jurors. And so the courts have really been cautious about resuming jury trials and they put together, I think, a very careful plan so that when they do bring jurors back in it really minimizes the risk of COVID-19. Charity: Why am I not surprised that there've been some by zoom? I feel like we've done everything by zoom lately. Let's talk about that plan. What are they doing as they start to bring jurors back? What's the court going to do to make sure that people who are summoned to be jurors are going to be safe as they come into the courthouse. David Farnbauch: All right. So I'd say some of the basic things that they're doing for a lot of things, which is to obviously check the temperature of everybody comes in, masks are mandatory. And then what they've done is changed, Charity, the configuration of the courtroom. We don't have, we're not going to have the traditional jury box. We're going to use the whole courtroom, like traditionally where the audience would be the gallery in the courtroom, that's where the jurors are going to be. And of course they have rules about social distancing in the courtroom. Some courts have put in some plexiglass to minimize the transmission of COVID in the courtroom. So those are the main things, but it's taken awhile to sort of formulate a plan and implement all these things. Charity: Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic will make a difference in how many prospective jurors will respond to a summons? David Farnbauch: Well, that's the concern, in fact in an organization that I belong to we recently commissioned a company that does research and focus group testing to find out the answer to that question. Which is are people, prospective jurors that get a summons for jury service, are they likely to actually show up for jury service, given the risk. It’s a fluid thing, but everybody would agree there are still risks there if you go to a public building like a courthouse. And what's interesting is the research that's been done shows that only about 20% of the people that they surveyed and these focus group tests are really sort of hardline that they will not respond to a summons for jury service in the midst of a pandemic like this. And about one third are somewhat comfortable if the court implements these measures that I just talked about; mask and social distancing and not being in a jury box. David Farnbauch: And then to our surprise are there were about 40% of the respondents that said as long as we have masks, and as long as the court is saying that we've got appropriate measures in place to protect us, they felt very comfortable with showing up for jury service, which was kind of a big surprise to everybody. So we still have that segment of the population that feels that call of duty. They get a summons for jury service, and they feel like it's their civic duty to go to the courthouse, even in the midst of a pandemic to make sure that the justice system goes forward. Charity: It's our civic duty to serve our jury duty and to vote. That's what, that's what we have to do. If you have questions about something in the legal world I have to do is give Sweeney Law Firm a call 420-3137, check him out online. We'll be right back.