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Following a four-week jury trial, SCBMA Partners Paul D. Bekman and Wendy L. Shiff obtained a verdict on behalf of their clients in a medical malpractice case tried in the Supreme Court of Dutchess County in Poughkeepskie, New York. Bekman and Shiff represented  a resident of Dutchess County who underwent a cardiac catheterization and stent placement at a Dutchess County Hospital.  Following the procedure, nurses at the hospital failed to recognize that the patient was exhibiting signs and symptoms of a stent re-occlusion . . . Continue Reading

A Fairfax County, Virginia jury recently awarded half a million dollars to a Reston, Virginia man who was the victim of “trash talking” by his doctors while he was sedated for a colonoscopy procedure.  According to an article in the Washington Post, the man’s cell phone recorded the entire procedure.  The recording, which was admitted into evidence and played for the jury, proved that the anesthesiologist and gastroenterologist who attended to the man during the procedure ridiculed him, falsified his medical records, . . . Continue Reading

On June 10, 2015, Partners Michael P. Smith and Ryan S. Perlin obtained a Plaintiffs’ verdict on behalf of their clients in a negligence case tried in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County in Rockville, Maryland. Smith and Perlin represented a young man with emotional and behavioral disabilities, who was a resident at a residential treatment center which specialized in providing psychiatric treatment for adolescents.  When the plaintiff was fifteen years old, staff members improperly physically restrained him in violation of applicable deescalation and restraint guidelines.  . . . Continue Reading

The Court of Special Appeals, Maryland’s intermediate appellate court, today upheld a $1.3 million verdict in a case tried by SCBMA partners, Michael Smith and Ryan Perlin , in an unreported opinion.  The medical malpractice case was originally tried in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County for one week in April 2014.  After two days of deliberations, the jury issued a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs for $2.13 million, which was automatically reduced because of Maryland’s statutory cap on noneconomic damages. Mr. Smith and Mr. . . . Continue Reading

Today, on behalf of over 750 victims and family members, SCBMA filed a lawsuit against The Rockefeller Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation, alleging that they were the primary driving force behind illegal and immoral human experiments in which vulnerable populations of Guatemalans were deceived, and intentionally exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea and other venereal diseases . . . Continue Reading

Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin, L.L.C. is proud to announce that it has been named to the U.S. News and World Report “Best Law Firms” list.  Nationally, SCBMA was named to the Third Tier of the Best Law Firms in the are of Admiralty and Maritime Law.  In Maryland, SCBMA was named to the First Tier in the areas of Admiralty & Maritime Law , Arbitration, Mediation, Plaintiffs’ Medical Malpractice , Plaintiffs’ Personal Injury , and Plaintiffs’ Product Liability Litigation . For the 2015 “Best Law Firms” list, U.S. News and World Report uses a . . . Continue Reading

Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin, L.L.C., is proud to announce that Emily C. Malarkey and Ryan S. Perlin have been elected its newest partners. Emily C. Malarkey started at SCBMA as a law clerk and has been an Associate with the firm for eight years.  She has developed a busy practice in the areas of medical negligence, wrongful death, and other catastrophic injury.  She has also established a thriving appellate practice and has numerous published opinions to her name.  Ms. Malarkey is . . . Continue Reading

Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin, LLC proudly acknowledges that 8 of its attorneys have been named to the 2015 Maryland Super Lawyers or Maryland Super Lawyers Rising Stars lists.  Dale Adkins, Paul Bekman, Daniel Clements, Laurence Marder, Stuart Salsbury, Wendy Shiff, and Ryan Perlin have been named to the 2015 Maryland Super Lawyers list and Emily Malarkey has been recognized on the 2015 Maryland Super Lawyers Rising Stars list. With its 2015 edition published on December 10, 2015, the 2015 Super . . . Continue Reading

Last week, a federal jury in West Virginia awarded an Illinois couple $3.27 million in a transvaginal mesh case.  The plaintiff suffered from stress urinary incontinence, and, in 2011, underwent surgery to implant Johnson & Johnson’s transvaginal mesh sling.  Within a year, the sling had to be removed because it was causing her pelvic pain and pain during sexual intercourse.  The couple filed suit alleging that the mesh was defectively designed and that Johnson & Johnson had failed to warn . . . Continue Reading

Following up on a previous post regarding the reporting of preventable adverse events and transparency for patients choosing medical and hospital care, USA Today has today reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will resume reporting data on eight different “hospital acquired conditions,” including air embolism, blood incompatibility, catheter-associated infections, falls and trauma, retained foreign objects, pressure ulcers (bedsores), uncontrolled blood sugar levels, and urinary tract infections. CMS had stopped publicly reporting this data in early August of 2014, . . . Continue Reading