Damages

"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 miss you Alex..

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.

Between the cover blurb from Jonathan Harr, which may create (unrealistic) expectations of a "Civil Action"-like page turner, and the fact that the jacket copy gives away the outcome of the case -- an outcome that Werth withholds from the reader for most of the book's length -- it seems like the publisher is so eager to make sure you buy the book that it doesn't much care whether or not you enjoy it. That said, the book itself is a compelling read, keeping a close eye on both the doctor and the patients and writing about both with clarity and sympathy. It lacks the narrative drive of "A Civil Action", in part because many of the players involve drop in and out of the case as the story progresses, but it is nonetheless absorbing, and a fascinating ground-level look at how such political hot potatoes as malpractice laws and managed care work out in the real world. It's also a remarkable work of reportage -- I was shocked to find, at the end of the book, that Werth began meeting and interviewing the participants only once the case was well along, but he seems to have captured the flavor and atmosphere of events beautifully. (At least, I haven't read any criticisms from any of the people profiled in the book ...) If you do choose to buy it, though, one piece of advice: Remove the dust-jacket and, without reading it, throw it away.

This "You are there" look at a major medical malpractice case brought on by the birth of a severely brain damaged child is true to the Jonathan Harr "A Civil Action" format. The reader enters the psyche of the major players -- the heroically struggling working class parents, the true believer personal injury lawyer, the unjustly sacrificed physicians, the mercenary hospital staff, and the bottom line insurance company. One senses the absurdity and inefficiency of our current system of compensating families of bad outcome babies, yet a better book might have explored some solutions or considered a more rational, saner way to go about remedying these dire situations. Lacking the passion and rage of Harr's A Civil Action, the book sometimes collapses under the weight of all the details and changes in strategies. That being said, Damages still offers a thorough and informative look at a protracted legal battle in which no one, except perhaps the Sabia family, comes out looking very good.