Lawyers e-Journal
Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012
Legislative News
Gov. Deval Patrick signs bills into law
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Landmark agreement between physicians and attorneys provides
for medical liability reforms in Massachusetts
The health
care cost control bill recently passed by the Massachusetts
Legislature and signed by Gov. Deval Patrick on Aug. 6 contains
specific language that facilitates an approach of Disclosure,
Apology, and Offer (DA&O) to address medical malpractice
claims.
An historic and unprecedented partnership between physicians and
attorneys in Massachusetts has led to these significant reforms to
medical liability system, allowing for improvements to resolving
malpractice cases that could greatly benefit patients by reducing
some unnecessary and protracted lawsuits while improving patient
safety.
Changes include provisions for a six-month, pre-litigation
resolution period that affords the time to go through a DA&O
process with sharing of all pertinent medical records by the
patient, full disclosure by providers, and for statements of
apology by providers to be inadmissible in court. Click
here to learn more.
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MBA celebrates Gov. Deval Patrick's
signing of the "worker's right to know" bill
The Massachusetts Bar Association applauds
Patrick's Aug. 6 signing into law House
Bill 4034, which requires employers to provide temporary
workers with written notice of key details of their work
assignments and important legal protections available to
them.
The MBA has been part of working coalition, including MassCOSH and
Greater Boston Legal Services, that has advocated forcefully for
the passage of the Temp Worker Right to Know bill for the past
several years.
The law will end the suffering of temporary workers, who often
have limited knowledge of their legal protections and rights
available to them. If injured on job sites, temporary workers are
sometimes left abandoned at the hospital and may not even know the
correct name of their employer. A temporary worker's job location
may change before he or she can return after an injury, leaving the
burden of medical care and other expenses with the injured worker's
family or the commonwealth. Click here to learn more.
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Patrick signs bill relative to
student access to educational services
On Aug. 6, Patrick also signed into law House Bill 4332 relative
to student access to educational services and exclusions from
school. The bill requires school districts to allow students who
are excluded for more than 10 consecutive school days to continue
making academic progress by using alternative educational services,
including tutoring, alternative placement, Saturday school and
online or distance learning. The bill also requires school
districts to track and report data about all suspensions and
expulsions for use in identifying trends in the use of school
exclusions. The MBA support of this bill emanated from the Juvenile
& Child Welfare Law Section Council. Click here to view the bill.