Medical Malpractice Lawyer Serving Jackson, TN

I work on all of my health care liability cases with Collierville attorney Tom Long. I met Tom in my first year of law school. In addition to going to law school full time, he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department. I would see him come to class in his uniform, obviously tired from a night of being a first responder. Tom and I bonded over the fact that we had both grown up working in Memphis grocery stores and had been members of the UFCW Union local 1529. We were union brothers. 

After law school, Tom’s personality and medical background led him to focus his practice on medical malpractice cases. A year or two out of law school, I was still trying to figure out which type of law I wanted to practice. I was doing bankruptcy law for one particular couple, and when I asked about the medical bills that had forced them into bankruptcy they told me the story of how they had lost twin daughters because the wife’s doctor had failed to diagnose her pregnancy until she went into preterm labor at 27 weeks. The babies were born alive but died in their arms within hours.

          I had not handled any malpractice cases at the time, but knew that to win, you needed a doctor with the right credentials and knowledge. A lawyer at the firm where I had clerked in law school, had an ob/gyn case and a qualified expert from the DC area. I knew my case could be a big case, if handled correctly, so I called Tom and asked if he wanted to work with me on it, and the rest is history. We hired Dr. Howard Cohn as our expert and went on to settle the case before trial for a lot of money. Tom and I have gone on to handle dozens of malpractice cases together since then, recovering millions of dollars for our clients. Over the nearly three decades we have been working together, we have handled a wide variety of claims including deaths arising from missed cancer diagnoses, failure to diagnose heart problems, birth complications, drug interactions and mishandled infections. We have represented people with devastating spinal injuries from botched surgery, birth defects from birth injuries and a whole gamut of other life altering injuries.

          Any lawyer who knows anything about healthcare liability cases will tell you that these are among the most difficult cases to handle. You need to understand the medicine and the legally qualified expert witness doctors to even have a chance of success. The medical lobbies are so powerful that they have manipulated the Tennessee legislature into passing a morass of laws designed to act as a minefield for anyone brave enough to file a lawsuit. Intricate pre-suit notice laws with arcane service requirements, coupled with the necessity of a pre-suit “good faith certificate” supported by a “qualified physician”, make every decision to file one theses cases both fraught with peril and expensive. 

          In my humble opinion, Tom and I make an excellent team on malpractice cases. Since Tom’s practice has focused almost exclusively on medical issues given his medical training and hands on experience in the field, and his regular communications with expert physicians in a wide variety of areas, he has developed a medical knowledge and base of information beyond that of most physicians (at least from my observations). His years of experience have given him access to a stable full of well qualified expert witnesses, many associated with the southeast’s best medical schools. And Tom is also a bulldog. If something is just plain wrong, he fights hard and won’t let go.

          I bring my skills as a litigator to the equation. I have been lead-counsel on numerous complex lawsuits over the years. I believe I have the most litigating experience in the United States District Court for the Western District, Eastern Division, of any lawyer practicing in this division for the past 25 years. I have recovered over 25 million dollars over the years for clients in cases against negligent medical providers, employers, cities, counties and others who have breached a duty to my clients or violated their rights. I consider myself to be a well-rounded litigator with the ability, skill and knowledge to competently and efficiently lead a case through every phase of litigation to a successful result. I pride myself on my courtroom skills. I enjoy the challenge of convincingly presenting my cases to both judges and juries in the courtroom. I believe I write effectively, with the goal of clarity, brevity and focus. After nearly 30 years of practice, I still consider myself a student of the law with a curious mind. 

          But my biggest skill is probably being a “closer”. Most cases should settle. Approximately 90% of mine do. The ability to close a case starts with working it hard, doing the right investigation, knowing the facts and understanding the law. The other side must respect my ability and my word and understand that the consequences of not settling could be far worse than paying a fair settlement. Negotiation skills are critical. Over the years I have spent thousands of hours studying negotiation skills and strategies and, actually, negotiating hundreds of settlements. 

          That is what I bring to the table in healthcare liability cases. Because of the need for expert witness physicians, these cases are very expensive to pursue, with costs that can easily exceed $50,000.00 per case. This limits the malpractice cases we can take to those where the victim suffered a devastating injury or death because of a medical providers actions, which we can prove fell well below the recognized standard of care. Many of our cases have involved providers who didn’t take the time to properly evaluate or treat the patient. We are seeing more and more cases involving negligence by nurse practitioners who are often placed in difficult situations which call for greater training and experience than they have and without proper oversight from a supervising physician.

          Over the years, my healthcare liability cases have been among my favorite to work on. Because we are a small firm, my staff and I usually form deep attachments to our clients, as the loss or injury is often still fresh, and we are there to listen and offer support. I love the challenge of understanding the science and medicine and feel like I have developed a deeper level of understanding of it over the years. I enjoy working with Tom, who has become like a brother to me. These cases are almost always high stakes, dramatic and interesting. If you are looking at my website because you believe you or someone you love suffered a loss or serious injury because of medical negligence, call or email us. If we believe we can help, we will get you in and start looking at medical records. If we don’t think we can help, we will do our best to explain why.