Trial Attorneys New Haven

Watson Pleads Not Guilty In Conn. To DUI, Drug Charges

Judge Connor set his next pretrial appearance for Aug. 25, when Watson might choose to have a jury trial.

“I expect to deal with this in a legal manner,” Watson told reporters after leaving court, which was essentially the same thing he said at his first court appearance on June 7 . He declined to make any other statements.

The meeting with reporters was much less dramatic than on June 7, when reporters and TV cameramen chased Watson for a block down the street outside the stately New Haven courthouse before he stopped to answer their questions.

Police said Watson failed a sobriety test after he was stopped at a police DUI checkpoint on Foxon Road in East Haven on April 22. Police reports said Watson’s speech was slurred, officers smelled alcohol on his breath and marijuana on his clothes, and he had a small quantity of marijuana and a smoking pipe in his pocket. A lab test detected marijuana and cocaine in his urine.

However, a breathalyzer test at the scene recorded his blood alcohol level at 0.05 percent, which is 0.03 less than the legal limit of 0.08. At his earlier court appearance, the judge granted a defense motion to preserve the urinalysis sample that was tested at the lab. That was after a test came back on June 3 showing that Watson had both marijuana and cocaine in his blood.

The arrest forced Watson, a Republican, to step down as minority leader of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

He is charged with DUI, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Since he was charged, the Connecticut Legislature downgraded possession of that much marijuana to the status of an infraction.

Medical Malpractice – NY MD's Malpractice Ins Premiums- Is $170000 ...

Insurance policy, they usually get an insurance policy that protects them for that year for up to $1.3 Million dollars for each event that year, up to a maximum of $3.9 million dollars total for that same year. (The $3.9 million is called an ‘aggregate amount’). What does that mean for a patient who has sued a doctor in New York?

It means that if the patient is successful in their lawsuit and either settles with the doctor or obtains a verdict against the doctor, the maximum the patient can obtain from the insurance company would be $1.3 million on behalf of that individual doctor. Typically, many doctors and their professional groups take out additional insurance policy provided.

In other cases, a doctor may be required to obtain ‘excess’ insurance coverage through the hospital where they have admitting privileges. Again, this attempts to protect the doctor and also the hospital from any large payout.

“How come my doctor on Long Island has to pay so much in insurance premiums?” The answer to that question would take many days to answer. There are many reasons that account for such high premiums for doctors including the insurance company making poor financial decisions and requiring additional monies to keep them going. Other explanations point to the trial lawyers as the ‘bad guys’ driving up doctor’s premiums. Still others say it’s frivolous lawsuits that cause high premiums. Regardless of which explanation you accept, the fact is that doctors in New York and Long Island pay some of the highest medical premiums in the country. The question in the title of this article “Is $170,000 enough?” is a facetious way to inform the reader that the premiums are out of control.

There have been news accounts that some doctors have given up practicing obstetrics or other areas of medicine because of the high premiums. Other accounts claim this is mere exaggeration. Some patients feel bad for their doctor having to pay such high premiums. Others claims that their doctors can afford it and the doctors should stop complaining since they have a greater quality of life than many patients.

Why has there been no outcry from New York politicians looking into the pricing and fees of these same insurance companies? The lack of an answer suggests that the doctors may be afraid to take on their own insurance companies. What about the politicians? Why haven’t they taken up the gauntlet to address such high premiums? The lack of an obvious answer raises more questions about allegiances to special interests.

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