It is virtually impossible to appeal a Kaiser medical malpractice arbitration decision, according to J. Niley Dorit, a California medical malpractice attorney whose practice represents injured Kaiser patients. Since you only get one shot, he says that you have to get it right the first time.
Getting it right the first time can not be overstated
Appealing any kind of arbitration decision, Kaiser or otherwise, is virtually impossible, according to Dorit, because that’s the law in the state of California. He explained:
The focus is on having finality, and because of that, you really only get one shot at your case, so the selection of the arbitrator is a critical event in the management of any Kaiser case. The body of people who function as arbitrators are well known to me and to a few others in California, and selecting who will be the arbitrator cannot be be overstated.There’s a very small number of lawyers that practice medical malpractice in California. It’s a very, very small community – and within that community, there are some of us who do a lot more Kaiser cases than others. So, I think that there certainly is an advantage to having a lawyer who knows the Kaiser system because they’re familiar with the arbitrators – the good ones and the bad ones.
In addition to the scarcity of Kaiser Permanente medical and hospital malpractice attorneys, injured patients also have to deal with Kaiser's own set of rules – which tend to be very different than those followed in the traditional legal system.
Kaiser Permanente arbitrations have their own rules
Kaiser arbitrations have their own set of rules, which are different from the general California rules about trials and hearings. Dorit says that they also have their own set of deadlines, so I think that it’s really important to be able to get a hold of one of the few medical malpractice specialists, but also one that concentrates on Kaiser cases. There just aren’t that many of those.
The foregoing article has been prepared by an attorney who is a regular contributor to FreeAdvice, and is now undergoing review by the site's editorial staff.