Chicago Partners Maggie Fitzsimmons and Charles Cole obtained a directed verdict on behalf of a doctor in a complex psychiatric medical malpractice case, following a three-week trial.
The circumstances giving rise to the case date back more than eight years, when the plaintiff patient - who was a chronic alcoholic - visited the emergency room of a Chicago hospital seeking a medical clearance so she could enter a detox program. The hospital staff and Lewis Brisbois' client, an emergency medicine doctor, performed an appropriate assessment and requested an evaluation from a psychiatric social worker who staffed the emergency room. When the evaluation was delayed, the patient became irate and belligerent and demanded to depart against medical advice. The emergency medicine doctor determined that the patient was decisional and that no basis existed to hold her.
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