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Assignment 1: Medical Court Cases

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1. What liability do the other six partners in this medical practice have in connection with this lawsuit? Professional organizations like medical practices, law offices, and accounting firms are required by law to obtain insurance to cover against wrongdoings committed by a principal or an agent of the business. However, increasing liabilities associated with possible wrongdoings and regular business operations require additional forms of protection. By changing to a limited liability partnership, professional organizations are better able to protect each partner in the case that something happens professionally. Unfortunately, wrongdoings committed by an individual partner negates the protection offered to him or her by the chosen business …show more content…

However, there may also be cases in which the remaining six doctors could be found liable and it is crucial to understand which factors impact the distributed liability. Forty-nine out of fifty states participated in the adoption of either the Revised Uniform Partnership Act (RUPA or the Revise Uniform Limited Partnership Act (RULPA) which states that a partner is not fully liable for the wrongdoings committed by another partner or for partnership obligations. States also adopted statutes that closely mirror the sections of the RUPA and the RULPA. The state where the medical practice received incorporation will determine which statute must be followed. If the medical practice is in Louisiana, another statute must be enacted in order to provide protection for the remaining six doctors. If the partnership remained a general partnership, all seven doctors are liable based on each partner’s ownership interest (Rappold …show more content…

The first step is filing the Articles of Incorporation to the Secretary of State. If the medical practice neglected to send something in writing regarding their limited liability partnership, the court will find the six doctors liable just like in Campbell vs. Lichtenfels. Doctor involvement may also cause liability protection negation. Even though one doctor is solely responsible for the death of the patient, other doctors may be found liable by association. For example, one of the other doctors takes a CT scan of the patient’s brain and diagnoses a brain tumor. The information is relayed to the doctor and a surgery is scheduled. On surgery day, the surgeon accidentally causes a brain hemorrhage, which kills the patient. During the autopsy, no evidence of a brain tumor was found. The resulting incident makes two doctors liable for the malpractice; one was negligent for the patient’s death and the other was reckless for an incorrect diagnosis. The other five doctors are protected under limited liability (Rappold

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