New York Makes is Harder to Get Some Personal Records

Ben Glass

Attorney
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All too often the insurance defense attorneys go on a "fishing expedition" in a medical malpractice case to try to find "dirt" in a patient's past medical records.

Attorney Eric Turkewitz explains how, in New York, an appellate court has just made it a little more difficult for the fishing expedition to take place. Now, there must be an initital showing of a compelling need for some records, particularly those involving HIV status and substance abuse materials.

Comment from Virginia medical malpractice attorney Ben Glass: This really should be the standard anywhere. We recently defended an attempt by a major HMO to go hunting through a 25 year old woman's medical records hoping to find an excuse for the cause of death of her mother.

We fought this fishing expedition and won. The case then settled.