[quote]DJHT wrote:
[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
I kicked a bunch of lawyers out of a meeting once. I was Director of Litigation for an insurance company and they insisted they meet me b/c they weren’t getting any new work. Well, they unilaterally started changing an agreed fee structure and my response was to pull all the files - which they tried to fight by contacting the clients, our customers.
One thing lead to another and after a few choice words, I arose from my seat, looked at my assistant and said, “Patty, show these guys to the door”…and I walked out of the meeting. The look on their faces (and my assistant’s) was priceless - it was a mixture of “he can’t do that” and “…he just did”. We had a claim manager at that meeting and she found me later and said she couldn’t believe I did that - with amusement and admiration in her eyes.
I generally fucking hate lawyers. And the only thing worse than a lawyer, if you can believe such a creature exists, is doctors. Doctors are the more arrogant pricks on the planet. It’s a wonder their mothers even love them. When I handled medical malpractice claims, our lawyers spent as much time working on a doctor’s demeanor as they did working on the facts of the case. Ok, I exaggerate, but as a group, they are the most aloof and arrogant - far worse than lawyers. [/quote]
Okay BG serius question for a moment, I have worked in the medical field going on 20 years. My opinion on the Dr statement above is a little different. My question is
Do you find that statement really breaks down to older Dr’s? I find that Drs now in there mid 30’s-40’s are of a little different mindset. I do agree that the older generation were arrogant pricks and I have worked with 100’s over the years. Just wondering if you have any dealings with the newer younger generation.
My experience is that newer generations have now a better understanding of the fact the medical field has become a service industry. We are now past the age of the Dr knows all and is the end all of medical care. Just wondering. [/quote]
In my experience it’s not an age related issue. And I’ve dealt with them all, old and young, nurse or neurosurgeon. It’s definitely arrogance - especially when they have been accused of doing something wrong which as we know is the basis for such lawsuits. More often than not, they have done nothing wrong. Good medicine does not guarantee good outcomes. You can still practice good medicine and have a bad outcome.
So, from the start, unless they fucked up royally, they themselves feel “wronged” by being sued. Mix the arrogance with the already “professional detachment” required to practice medicine and you have a bad mix which often makes doctors very unsympathetic to juries. And if a jury does not “like” someone, they are generally unreceptive to their “story”. All lawsuits boil down to “stories”. I used to preach to our lawyers all the time before trial, the facts are important, but what is our “story”, what is our “theme”. How do we make the jury understand these technical terms and medicine in two weeks? You need a “story”. Whoever has the most compelling story with the most compelling characters will have an advantage. On one side, you have a patient that has been harmed (malpractice or not aside) and they are naturally sympathetic. We can all think, “if not for the grace of God, there go I” and are thus easily sympathetic to their plight. On the other side, you have an aloof arrogant doctor that can easily come across as not caring. If they plaintiff has a good story to tell with their experts, guess which was the verdict will go? Our lawyers would spend an inordinate amount of time grooming doctors for their depositions and trial testimony. Likewise, we’d use consultants when necessary to work with them more. We almost never did that for any other group of insureds.