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CONNIE CHUNG: You've heard from doctors why they're doing this. But what about the other side of the story? Dr. Donald Huffrider is CEO of Wheeling Hospital. And Jim Bordas is a lawyer who handles many of West Virginia's medical malpractice suits. He recently won West Virginia's largest medical malpractice judgments. A jury awarded his client $50 million.
Jim Bordas, I know that there are a lot of people out there who believe that patients should have the ability to sue for as much money or whatever as they can. But you know, a lot of people out there probably think, oh, it's just greedy lawyers. And you would fit that bill in their mind--greedy lawyers who just want a lot of money and on a contingency fee.
JIM BORDAS: Well, first, the people that know me know that that doesn't fit the bill in my case because I'm not a greedy lawyer. I've helped many people who've been seriously injured as a result of careless doctors' conduct. The issue here is not one between doctors and lawyers. It's between patients and doctors and hospitals.
Patients have an expectation that they're going to be treated fairly, competently, and safely. And when that doesn't happen, they've got a right to seek redress and be appropriately compensated. We get involved after the doctors have made a bad decision, fail to diagnose cancer. They've operated on the wrong side of the brain. When they've done any number of things that's caused great harm to our clients, the patients are then involved. And they try to seek compensation and restitution themselves. Then the insurance companies get involved. And sometime down the road, we lawyers may ultimately get involved to try to help resolve the matter entirely.
CONNIE CHUNG: Do you see your role as actually policing the medical community in the sense that you would keep them honest, if they weren't in a position of having this threat of a malpractice lawsuit that they wouldn't be performing good medicine?
JIM BORDAS: Well, I think doctors try to perform good medicine anyway. However, there are some that just don't. There's some that perform fraudulent acts. There's some that harm patients time and time again. And for some reason, the medical community simply refuses to take action against these irresponsible and incompetent physicians.
And we as lawyers have been given the privilege of helping the entire community to get rid of these incompetent doctors who have caused harm time and time again.
CONNIE CHUNG: Mr. Bordas, do you believe that the high costs of medical malpractice insurance is affecting the quality of care?
JIM BORDAS: No, I don't. I think the doctors that I know--and I know a lot of doctors that live in large homes, expensive homes. They drive expensive automobiles. They belong to country clubs. I don't think they're hurting. I personally believe that the insurance carriers had a tough time, like most of us have in the stock market, and because of the losses they have sustained, they've increased some of the doctors' rates. And it's unfortunate that that--I think they're the real culprit in this supposed medical negligence process.
CONNIE CHUNG: Alright, Dr. Huffrider, Jim Bordas, thank you so much for being with us.
DONALD HUFFRIDER: Thank you.
JIM BORDAS: You're welcome.
