Todd N. Hendrickson Blog

Imagine this scenario: You walk into your doctor’s office for a routine exam. You are handed a stack of papers to fill out. Nothing unusual, right? Wrong! Included in that stack is a legal document stating that you agree to give up your right to file a lawsuit if the doctor is negligent and, instead, you agree to binding arbitration. This couldn’t happen in America, right? Wrong.As reported recently in the St. Petersberg Times, an increasing number of doctors, particularly obstetricians, are requiring their patients to sign binding arbitration agreements or they will simply refuse to treat them.You don’t go into a doctor’s office and expect to be making legal decisions, you expect treatment from a compassionate, caring, skilled and ethical physician. If your physician is trying to get you to waive your rights, before you or they know if anything has occurred, and without consulting an attorney, then that physician is not ethical. Patients have a constitutional right to seek redress for injuries caused by negligence.If you are faced with one of these waivers, I suggest you politely ask the doctor to guarantee, in writing, that he will not be negligent in his treatment of you. If he won’t do that, then you shouldn’t agree to arbitration.