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By Alexa Bornstein, Justice and Legal Thought College Park Scholar
Throughout my experience, I assisted attorneys with a multitude of tasks that gave me ample exposure to the legal system and its inner workings.
This semester I worked as an intern in the Health Law Practice Group at the law firm Jackson & Campbell, P.C. in Washington, D.C. Throughout my experience, I assisted attorneys with a multitude of tasks that gave me ample exposure to the legal system and its inner workings. Working with cases mostly pertaining to medical malpractice, I was able to learn the process of obtaining and analyzing medical records for legal purposes, how to defend doctors/hospitals/other health care facilities in alleged malpractice cases, and how the general process of a civil case works from the submitting of pleadings to mediation efforts.
While completing these tasks and gaining this exposure, I was constantly being exposed to ideas of justice and legal thought. The entire point of defending doctors and health care facilities in alleged medical malpractice cases is to ensure that they should actually be held liable for what the plaintiff is claiming. Often, the general public assumes that the defendant is always guilty, however, I have come to realize that is not always the case. Although many times plaintiffs are right in suing the doctor/health care facility, other times plaintiffs are not making valid claims. That is why it is so important for attorneys to ask themselves when looking at each case, who deserves the justice here? The work Jackson & Campbell does is so important, because the attorneys make sure that doctors and health care facilities are not taken advantage of, while at the same time ensuring that the plaintiff gets the justice they deserve. Overall, health law is such an important field, because it holds healthcare facilities and their staff accountable for their treatment of patients and plaintiffs accountable for the legal claims they make.
Hi Alexa,
I think it's so cool that you actually got to work in a law firm this semester! I think that your work is a perfect example of their being justice in every aspect of the law whether it be criminal or medical. I can't imagine how many cases you must've gone through during this time though. Did it ever get to overwhelming for you to have to deal with so many cases all at once? Regardless, I think that this is such an amazing opportunity and I really hoped you enjoyed it!
This project stood out to me because I had never heard the concept of health law but am very interested in health policy so I was curious to learn more about it. After viewing your poster I have a better understanding of what it is and was surprised to learn that medical malpractice claims are pretty common. During your experience did you ever attend a court case?
Hi Alexa! Your poster caught my eye because the title piqued my interest. It was interesting to learn that how plaintiffs can abuse the justice system in their favor. I was wondering if you would like to pursue health law in the future.
Hi Alexa, I was drawn to your poster because I thought it was interesting that you dipped beyond just JLT and into the health field. From your project I learned that you dealt with medical malpractice cases. These are explored in the GVPT331 class I am taking. I was wondering whether you had any interest in going into the health field.
Hi Alexa! Your poster caught my eye because I am interested to see how medical malpractice cases can be compared to other areas of legal thought. I learned a lot from your poster, specifically how the plaintiff can abuse the system and how the attorneys interpret different defense cases. How do you think these cases of medical malpractice defenses compare to other defense cases and is there more gray area here than in others?