Wilkes &McHugh lawsuit going to trial?
By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
April 13, 2003
A pre-trial conference is scheduled this week in Lauderdale County Circuit Court in the first of what could be a number of jury trials in lawsuits filed by Wilkes &McHugh.
The Florida law firm specializes in nursing home litigation and targeted Mississippi as its next expansion area in 2001.
Since then, Wilkes &McHugh has filed 12 lawsuits against Lauderdale County nursing homes most of them in December as the Jan. 1 effective date of the state's new tort reform law approached.
Jim Wilkes of Wilkes &McHugh says he is happy to be known as the "most hated man in the nursing home industry" and asserts, "We wouldn't be winning if there weren't something wrong."
Wilkes claims a 97 percent success rate in nursing home litigation and, in November, won a $7 million jury award for clients in Greenwood. Lawyers representing nursing homes all over the state attended the trial to get a look at the competition.
Elsewhere in the state, and in Lauderdale and Newton counties, out-of-court settlements have been negotiated.
Benchmark
Health Care
Five of the 12 lawsuits filed on behalf of plaintiffs by Wilkes &McHugh are against a single nursing home, Benchmark Health Care in Marion, and former owner Guy Howard, who sold the business last year.
It takes a while for a lawsuit to come to trial if, in fact, it ever does. On Wednesday, a Circuit judge is scheduled to meet with lawyers from Wilkes &McHugh and Bourdeaux &Jones, which represents Benchmark, in a wrongful death complaint filed in March 2001.
The trial is set to begin April 21.
During the meeting, the judge will consider pre-trial motions and set ground rules for the trial.
Wilkes &McHugh attorneys have filed a motion asking the judge to forbid defense attorney Benny Carter from talking to the jury about "greedy trial lawyers," the firm's advertisements or the state's bitter and protracted debate over "tort reform."
Their list of potential witnesses includes 26 medical providers/treating physicians, 56 other people employed locally in the health care industry, two experts, the defendants, 11 people who are family members or friends of the Benchmark resident who passed away and 371 people identified as "facility employees."
There is still the possibility of a settlement, but it is looking more and more like this will actually go to trial.
Quick takes
Plaintiffs: I have not identified the plaintiffs by name in this opinion piece because I don't mean to criticize them indirectly through proximity to my rhetoric.
I have concerns about the increase in the number of lawsuits filed against nursing homes and doctors and its effect on the health care industry but that doesn't mean these plaintiffs, the survivors of a man who was a Benchmark resident, might not be right.
If they are, I hope they win.
More lawsuits: In addition to the five Wilkes &McHugh lawsuits, three other law firms have also filed against Benchmark on behalf of their clients. If you assume that at least some of them will succeed, what happens when the insurance money runs out?
And, Wilkes &McHugh has filed at least one lawsuit against five other Lauderdale County nursing homes.
Insurance issues: Did you know there are nursing homes out there operating without liability insurance because they can't afford it? One nursing home owner told me he expects his premiums to almost quadruple this year from $70,000 to $250,000.
Dan Hughes, president of Mississippi Healthcare Insurance Services Corp., told me most carriers who once wrote policies in Mississippi have been gone for years. Others are non-renewing or quoting renewal premiums so sky-high that nobody can pay them.
Hughes said only two insurance companies will accept new applications for liability insurance from nursing homes in Mississippi.
Both are Lloyd's of London syndicates which turn down more applications than they accept and their chairman is getting nervous. Speaking earlier this month in Chicago, Lord Levene urged Congress to act to "stop a culture in which businesses are more prepared to cease trading than face the risk of litigation."
Possible futures: Jim Wilkes says it's a good thing when nursing homes close because there are better ways to care for elderly people.
No doubt he's right, but I would feel better about him if he were as proactive about supporting new initiatives in the care of the elderly as he is about teaching lawyers how to win contingency lawsuits against nursing homes at seminars all over the country.
Not his job? No, it's not.
But, think about this. Do we really want to run nursing homes out of business? Do we want that to happen before there is an alternative in place? Do you know how to care for an aged, perhaps bed-ridden, parent yourself?
It could come to that.
