Thomas Pleasant helps people who are being victimized by insurance companies. If you are facing obstacles in getting your insurer to pay a legitimate claim or if your claim has already been denied, Thomas can help you. His areas of special expertise include insurance bad faith cases, long-term disability claims, and property damage and losses as well as personal injury and product liability cases, and situations in which people are being treated unfairly by their employers and as consumers. Thomas represents clients in the Southeast and Mid regions of North Carolina. If you need legal help, contact Thomas today for a free consultation. www.pleasantlaw.com

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Stockbroker Fraud & Misconduct

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Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect

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Medical Negligence, Mistakes and Malpractice

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Document Library

On the page below you can find links to documents, reports, publications and discussions provided by The Law Offices of Thomas Waitt Pleasant, PLLC.

The documents below are available to the public so that they can gain a better understanding of the legal challenges facing them, and why an experienced attorney is so important for success.

Contact us for a consultation today.

Library Categories:

Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect:

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Medical Negligence, Mistakes and Malpractice:

  • AAJ' Medical Negligence Primer: Debunking Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Myths [PDF]   
    For people hurt by doctors, hospitals, nurses and/or surgery and other medical malpractice situations; this "primer" will help shed light on the myths about reforming and limiting people's right to sue doctors, hospitals and other health care givers when those doctors and hospitals make mistakes and hurt or kill people. The insurance and health care corporate lobbies are pushing to limit people's rights to bring medical lawsuits. This also hurts those who need to bring lawsuits against nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
  • Insurance Industry’s Investment Practices – Not The Legal System – Cause High Malpractice Insurance Costs [PDF]   
    Americans for Insurance Reform Fact Sheet discussing the true causes of high medical malpractice insurance costs
  • The Defensive Medicine Myth [PDF]   
    Americans for Insurance Reform article discussing the myth that health care providers (doctors, hospitals) practice "defensive medicine" because of fear of medical malpractice liability.
  • The Problem With Medical Malpractice Is The Amount Of Malpractice Itself [PDF]   
    Americans for Insurance Reform article, "The Problem With Medical Malpractice Is The Amount Of Malpractice Itself" explaining the real cause for medical negligence lawsuits.
  • Editorial on Starting Over on Bill Dealing with Medical Malpractice/Mistakes   
    Interesting article from denverpost.com outlining some of the history and problems with caps on medical malpractice damages. Specifically, the editorial suggests the problems arbitrary limits on personal injury awards arising from medical mistakes cases. The author concludes that the victims of medical malpractice deserve to be paid reasonable compensation for their injuries.
  • Birth Injury (Brachial Plexus, Erb's Palsy, Cerebral Palsy) in North Carolina   
    Attorney Thomas Pleasant handles legal cases involving birth injuries and medical malpractice from labor and delivery to early newborn care. These can include shoulder dystocia, brachial plexus injuries, and cerebral palsy. Cases handled anywhere in North Carolina. Offices in North Carolina include Raleigh, Wilmington and Fayetteville.
  • HHS Infection Prevention Guidelines [PDF]   
    The United States Department of Health and Human Services released official guidelines this week for the reduction of infections in hospitals, including guidelines related to six of the more common hospital acquired infections (HAIs). These six infections include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (“MRSA”) and Clostridium difficile (“C Diff”). These infections are seen quite often in nursing homes, rest homes, assisted living facilities, and hospitals.This is s copy of the guidelines, which are relevant to medical negligence, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and neglect, and other personal injury and wrongful death cases.
  • Case Point Memo: Statutes of Limitations in Medical Negligence Cases [PDF]   
    If you have a claim against a doctor, nurse or hospital in North Carolina, be careful about the deadlines that apply for bringing suit. They are short, and tricky. Generally, medical malpractice suits must be brought within three years from the date of the last act of the defendant giving rise to the cause of action; or within one year of the date when the injury was or should have been discovered, but not more than four years from the date of the last act of defendant giving rise to the cause of action. N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 1-15 and 1-52(16) (1996). Foreign object cases must be brought within one year from the date of discovery, but no longer than ten years from the date of the occurrence. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-15 (1996). Wrongful death actions based on alleged medical malpractice must be brought within the foregoing period or within two years from death, whichever is shorter. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-53 (1996).
    You should not try to determine limitations periods on your own, as there are complicated exceptions to the general rules, and each case is unique. If you or someone you love has been hurt or killed by the mistake of a doctor, nurse or hospital, you should contact a North Carolina attorney or lawyer who handles medical negligence claims. North Carolina lawyer Thomas Pleasant is available to discuss your case free of charge, and have office locations in Wilmington, Raleigh and Fayetteville; and in many cases will travel to you if travel is difficult for you.
  • NC Medical Malpractice Summary: No Lawsuit Crisis Indicated [PDF]   
    Report published by the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers regarding medical malpractice lawsuits in North Carolina. This report shows how unfairly the number of medical malpractice cases in North Carolina have been characterized. There surely does not appear to be any medical malpractice crisis in North Carolina. Somewhere around 0.25% of all cases filed in North Carolina were medical malpractice. For all 100 counties in North Carolina from about 1998 through 2007, between 500-600 medical malpractice, negligence, or medical mistake lawsuits were filed on average per year. This is for all of North Carolina. The study shows medical malpractice case dispositions for all counties in North Carolina.
  • Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer: Guidelines from the American Cancer Society [PDF]   
    See the American Cancer Society's guidelines for the diagnosis of breast cancer. If you or a loved one feels that a doctor misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose breast cancer, causing injury or wrongful death; these guidelines could be of interest. They might not be determinative as to whether you actually have a medical malpractice injury or wrongful death lawsuit; but as a starting point these breast cancer guidelines could be of interest. If you are in North Carolina, whether in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Lumberton, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, or any other North Carolina city, and you have an issue with breast cancer diagnosis, feel free to contact North Carolina attorney Thomas Waitt Pleasant for a free consultation.
  • National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Screening Guidelines: Helpful Document For Those Considering Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer Lawsuits [PDF]   
    For anyone in North Carolina or elsewhere considering hiring a medical malpractice or medical negligence attorney for failure to diagnose breast cancer, these guidelines are useful for determining generally whether the doctor/physician properly handled the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. These guidelines might not be "the law" ultimately; but they are a useful starting point for determining whether cancer screening was properly done, for purposes of determining doctor or physician assistant liability. In order to fully evaluate your medical negligence, malpractice or mistake claim (whether for medical bills and pain & suffering only; or for wrongful death as well), contact North Carolina medical negligence lawyer Thomas Pleasant.

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Personal Injury & Wrongful Death:

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Insurance: Unfair Insurance Claim Practices:

  • Tips from Policyholders of America: Should You Sue Your Insurance Company?   
    Policyholders of America has published a useful list of tips for people considering suing their insurance company for not handling an insurance claim fairly.
  • AAJ's Top Ten Worst Insurers List (Allstate, State Farm, Unum, Liberty Mutual, Farmers on list) [PDF]   
    AAJ's recently released report containing the top 10 worst insurance companies in America. This is a must read for consumers. If you think choosing your insurance company carefully is not important, think again. If you face having to make a claim against one of these insurance companies, you might be in for a surprise. Hopefully, you will consider this when purchasing insurance, before you need an insurance lawyer to help you with your insurance claim.
  • Dateline Story: The Paper Chase (Regarding Allegedly Unfair Insurance Claims Practices in Disability Insurance Claims)   
    Dateline investigates State Farm Insurance Company and its little-known practice of "paper review." In a paper review, State Farm employees review a patient's medical records rather than actually examining the patient. The Dateline crew discovered that some State Farm employees use this practice to manipulate the system. For example, the crew found that some employees "secretly orchestrated the supposedly independent medical results, helping author reports and dictating changes to medical opinions that led to lower recommended payments for medical claims."
  • Homeowner Claims: Increase Your Payout   
    CNNMoney.com article outlining how property insurance companies handle property insurance claims. This article might help one see, anticipate and/or understand unfair insurance claims practices or insurance bad faith in the event of a property insurance claim (house fire claim, property theft claim, etc.), or worse, if you are actually having an insurance dispute.
  • UnumProvident "Representation" Letter [PDF]   
    This letter details some of the relationships between UnumProvident, a large disability insurance company, with other disability insurance companies. This can be important, because UnumProvident could be behind the scene in handling your disability claim. If you have an unfair claims practice claim or insurance bad faith claim, this could be critical information in determining who should be sued, if an unfair insurance claims practices or insurance bad faith lawsuit must be filed.
  • Disability Claim Denied! (Business Week Article on Disability Insurer's Unfair Insurance Claims Practices / Bad Faith)   
    This December 22, 2003 online Business Week Article addresses concerns that were arising about disability insurance company UnumProvident. This article discusses UnumProvident's "roster of rejections."
  • United Policyholders Information on UnumProvident's Disability Insurance Practices and Unfair Insurance Claims Practices / Bad Faith Lawsuits   
    This article, at www.unitedpolicyholders.org, states that "[f]rom publicly available federal court records, it appears that Unum, Unumprovident, Provident Life, and Paul Revere companies have been named in at least 4,575 civil actions concerning insurance from 2000 to the present. This may understate the total number of federal court filings, because an insurance coverage action might also be described as contract or some other category of action, and also because not all federal courts participate in the PACER system from which this information was drawn." Click on this link to view this and other information about UnumProvident, bad faith and unfair insurance claims practices, and disability insurance claims generally.

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General:

  • Insurers Increase Profits to Record Levels by Overpricing Policies and Shifting Costs to Consumers and Taxpayers (Report & Press Release from Consumer Federation of America) [PDF]   
    Consumer Federation of America report on insurance practices. Every insurance lawyer should read this report. Every person looking for an insurance claim lawyer should read this report. Despite record profits, insurance companies still seem to engage in unfair insurance claims practices and insurance bad faith when people have an insurance claim, forcing people to hire an insurance lawyer. The Law Offices of Thomas Waitt Pleasant can help you with your insurance law or insurance claim dispute or problem.
  • Order Denying Allstate Insurance's Motion to Seal Trial Exhibits [PDF]   
    On August 16, United States District Judge Sarah Vance in New Orleans refused to seal the trial exhibits in Weiss v. Allstate, the case of a New Orleans couple who earlier this year won a $2.8 million verdict against Allstate for illegally refusing a hurricane-related claim. In so ruling, the Court noted that "[p]ublic access serves to enhance the transparency and trustworthiness of the judicial process, to curb judicial abuses, and to allow the public to understand the judicial system better." This is a copy of the order.
  • Consumer Federation's Allstate Insurance Anti-Consumer Study [PDF]   
    35 page report by the Consumer Federation of America regarding Allstate Insurance Company's Excessive Prices and Poor Claims Practices
  • National Association of Insurance Commissioners   
    Home page for the primary association of insurance commissioners, the state regulators who control and police the insurance industry. Here you can find information that could help with your bad faith insurance or unfair insurance claim practices case; like insurance complaint statistics, information on specific insurance companies, and other useful information about your insurance policy or insurance claim.
  • State Farm v. Campbell (Excerpt): Why a Judge Found State Farm Cheated Customers For Over Two Decades (Unfair Insurance Claims Practices / Bad Faith) [PDF]   
    This excerpt details unfair claims practices and bad faith insurance conduct. A Utah trial court judge found that State Farm had repeatedly and "deliberately deceived and cheated its customers." by setting monthly payment caps and individually rewarding those insurance adjusters who paid less than the market value for claims. The judge found that even "[a]gents changed the contents of files, lied to customers, and committed other dishonest and fraudulent acts in order to meet financial goals."
  • Fighting for the "Little Guy" - Brief and Resulting Order Denying Contempt Charge Against Thomas Pleasant's Franchisee Client [PDF]   
    Thomas Pleasant was lead counsel representing a local Medicine Shoppe Franchisee against Medicine Shoppe International, Inc., a large franchisor with over 1,000 franchises worldwide. Thomas Pleasant successfully defended his client against a vigorously fought charge of contempt from this powerful opponent. This was not an insurance bad faith or unfair claims practice case, but demonstrates Thomas Pleasant's commitment to fighting for the "little guy" in disputes with large corporate interests, such as insurance companies in unfair insurance claims practices and insurance bad faith disputes.
  • Disability Insurance Market Conduct Investigation Report: Unum Provident and Paul Revere (Unfair Insurance Claims Practices / Bad Faith) [PDF]   
    This is a copy of a Targeted Multistate Market Conduct Examination (investigation) of companies controlled by or related to disability insurer UnumProvident, including Unum Life Insurance Company, Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, and Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company. The insurance commissioners determined that these insurance companies had essentially used unfair claims practices and bad faith in the administration of disability insurance claims.

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