TEA.8.6

Description

This article concerns New York medical-malpractice awards for future life care of plaintiffs and the rules which govern plaintiffs’ attorney-fee determination. The two pertinent statutes which are now applicable to New York medical-malpractice recoveries are the newly revised periodic payment law, CPLR 50-A, and the longstanding sliding fee scale, Judicial Law 474-a. The fee-computation illustrations presented here show that, for verdict awards of future life care, these statutes lead to relatively small fee shortfalls, which are inevitable, though unintended, outcomes. The newly revised periodic payment statute, CPLR 50-A, is provided as Appendix A to this paper.