Now final, this decision will have nationwide impact concerning the practice of medicine. In this litigation, our firm represented trained physicians who sought to prohibit certified registered nurse anesthetists from performing interventional pain management procedures typically performed by physicians. A permanent injunction was granted in favor of the physician group on the basis of testimony that nurses do not have the training possessed by physicians to perform many of the involved medical procedures.
The Louisiana First Circuit in Teague v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, No. 2006-CA-1266R confirmed an insurer’s sole and exclusive right to decide whether or not to settle a professional liability suit where there is no “consent to settle” clause. The Appellate Court ruled that the defendants (represented by our firm in this litigation) caused no damage to the plaintiff. In the process, theTeague Court held that a failure to post a jury bond does not constitute actionable legal malpractice and that a legal malpractice claimant can not recover emotional damages unless the subject matter of the underlying litigation exclusively involved non-economic claims such as child custody disputes.