In their regular column for the New York Law Journal on Law.com, New York medical malpractice attorneys Thomas Moore and Matthew Gaier discuss punitive damages for tampering with or destroying medical records.
When investigating potential medical malpractice actions, attorneys are occasionally faced with what appears to be medical records that are missing or have been altered. Although this is by no means the norm, its occurrence is not as infrequent as one might expect. When this does occur, it is oftentimes in an effort to evade liability for medical malpractice.
According to Moore and Gaier, the most effective deterrence to the potential alteration or destruction of medical records is the potential for a punitive damages award to be imposed against the offending party. In the article, Thomas Moore and Matthew Gaier discuss a decision in which the Second Department upheld a punitive damages award for tampering with medical records.
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