Houston Doctor issued probation for sexual assault of a patient

In 2001, Houston Doctor Jeffrey Klem allegedly molested two young female patients. Recently, Dr. Klem was sentenced to five years deferred adjudication after a The Harris County District Attorney's office agreed to a plea bargain whereby the charges against Klem were reduced to Injury to a Child.Additionally, Klem must write a letter of apology to the two girls and pay a rather small fine.

You may be wondering why I am talking about a criminal case on a personal injury blog. In the spirit of educating the public on some of the more complex aspects of civil law, I feel this story illustrates an example where many may feel that the punishment in criminal court was not severe enough. Often times, when the victims of an assault are not satisfied with the outcome in criminal court they turn to civil court as another option.

In a case such as this, determining the basis of the civil suit is a tricky balancing act that most non-attorneys have a hard time making sense of. On one hand, you have the obvious option of suing the doctor himself, as an individual, for the assault. This would be an easy argument to make, especially given the outcome of the criminal case, but the possibility of recovering any damages (making any money for the victim) rests entirely on whether or not the doctor has any non-judgment proof assets. Effectively, some assets such as the doctor's home and other similar personal property are what we consider to be "judgment proof"; which means that you cannot sue them and expect them to pay you with those assets. In other words, if all a doctor owns is a million dollar house and has $10,000 in his checking account, you would only be able to collect from his $10,000. Most people consider doctors to be well paid and have a hard time imagining that a doctor does not have appreciable assets, but you would be surprised. Many doctors spend a disproportionate amount of their income on purchasing a home as it is a safe harbor for their wealth and they are left with little liquid assets. Not to mention, this particular doctor has probably spent a significant amount of his personal income on defending his criminal case.

On the flip side, you can sue the doctor citing that the alleged sexual assault is a form of medical malpractice, but there are two problems to this approach.

1) If the damages are high in value (meaning that you are suing for a high dollar amount) then the damages may be capped due to the tort reform measures adopted by The State of Texas in the 90's which would seriously affect your chances of getting a fair recovery.

2) The other problem with this approach is that an assault is a deliberate tort. As such, most medical malpractice insurance policies will not cover the event. This is the equivalent of the difference between when a car insurance company chooses to cover the damages when one of their insured accidentally hurts someone with their car vs. NOT covering the damages when their insured deliberately uses their car as a weapon to hurt someone.

A third option for a civil suit would be the possibility of suing the corporate entity that the doctor is a part of for negligent hiring, or some other similar cause of action. This, of course, rests on the possibility that the company is set up in such a way that the doctor is more or less an employee.

Naturally, there could be a forth option and a fifth option, so on and so forth. The best option would be decided by the plaintiff's attorney once they do a little investigative work and get a feel for the situation. This, quite clearly, illustrates the point that in order to have any type of success with such a case you need an attorney that has the experience to guide your case down the proper path and to avoid the common pitfalls.

It's my understanding that the family of one of the girls who was assaulted is filing a civil suit against the doctor in one from or another. I wish them and their attorney the best of luck in this case.

 

Posted by: Dallas Texas personal injury attorney Michael Grossman | Posted on: 3/11/2009 | Comments (0)

As a Texas attorney practicing for 20 years, I have litigated all manner of personal injury cases. I use this blog as a place to write opinion / editorial articles on a variety of topics that catch my interest and as a means of sharing news stories relevant to personal injury accidents. I think the overwhelming majority of people are unaware just how common these types of accidents are and I hope this blog raises awareness to rather serious public safety concerns. However, this blog is simply a means for me to share my opinions and I would recommend that anyone who is considering seeking legal counsel should contact their family attorney.

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