Medical Malpractice Defense

When the stakes are high and our client-providers’ reputations are on the line, the Bowles Rice Medical Malpractice Defense Team is poised and ready to aggressively defend our clients’ interests.  Our Team consists of experienced and skilled trial attorneys dedicated to strategically representing health care providers and their employers. The Team has combined to try more than 50 medical malpractice matters to jury verdict. We have successfully defended physicians, APPs, hospitals, and other health care providers in high exposure, professional liability claims, including a wide range of complex, challenging health care matters involving allegations of:

• Failure to treat;
• Prescription errors;
• Birth injury claims;
• Diagnosis errors/delayed diagnosis; and
• Operative errors.

In addition to representing health care providers in civil litigation, our Team specializes in representing healthcare providers before the Board of Medicine, Board of Osteopathic Medicine, and various licensing boards throughout the State of West Virginia. We assist clients in responding to patient complaints and skillfully navigate them through disciplinary proceedings. Our medical professional liability team is well equipped to handle any type of case before administrative boards and has time and time again secured dismissals before various Boards in the State.

Bowles Rice lawyers also frequently write and present on topics related to the Medical Professional Liability Act (MPLA), Medical Records Privacy and Security (HIPAA) and other health care law related matters. Our attorneys are also equipped to provide cutting edge in-house training to healthcare providers seeking to mitigate risk and exposure from medical malpractice claims and licensing disputes.  

Bowles Rice attorneys are also recognized in the area of Health Care Law by the leading peer-review organizations, Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers.

We have experience winning several matters in the medical malpractice defense law. Recent victories include: 

• Secured a complete dismissal for a Doctor of Physical Therapy before the West Virginia Board of Therapy, despite the Board’s previous finding of probable cause.
  
• Christine Erickson v. Department of Health and Human Resources, et al., filed in the Circuit Court of Marshall County, West Virginia, Civil Action No. CC-25-2023-C-42. Dismissal for failure to state upon which relief could be granted due to qualified immunity and statutory immunity conferred to CPS workers in the Circuit Court of West Virginia.  
• Umar Adeyola v. Shitiz Sriwastava, University of West Virginia, et al., filed in the United States District Court of Maryland, Civil Action No. TDC-22-0781. Dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction in the District Court of Maryland.
• State Ex Rel West Virginia University Inc v. Nelson, filed in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Civil Action No. 20-0906. Writ of Prohibition in the Supreme Court of West Virginia.