Law firm faces malpractice lawsuit after doctor returns $6 million judgment

A New Jersey law firm has been hit with a legal malpractice lawsuit over its handling of a personal injury case that resulted in a $20 million jury verdict.

Maternal medicine specialist Garry Frisoli has filed a malpractice lawsuit against Cranford-based Dughi, Hewitt & Domalewski and Michael Keating, a retired attorney for the firm.

Frisoli alleges in the lawsuit in Union County Superior Court that Keating, the attorney who represented him in an underlying case arising from the birth of a brain-damaged child, failed to notify him of his potential exposure in the case exceeded policy limit of $1 million. .

Frisoli’s lawsuit also alleges that Keating failed to timely submit expert reports to support the theory that the harm to the child was not the result of the doctor’s negligence.

The dispute centers on Maria Tapia’s birth of twins in 2011. She and her husband, Octavio, sued Frisoli and others after their daughter, Kylie, was born with brain damage due to oxygen loss.

When that lawsuit went to trial in 2018, the jury awarded a $20 million verdict, reducing the award against Frisoli to $6 million based on awarding 30 percent of the debt to Frisoli and the remainder to a obstetrician who had reached a confidential settlement before the trial.

According to Frisoli’s lawsuit, before the medical malpractice case went to trial, Kylie’s parents submitted an offer to settle for $1 million, the limit for the doctor’s malpractice suit.

But Frisoli’s lawsuit alleges that Keating and the law firm failed to notify Frisoli of the filing and failed to tell him that his potential exposure was greater than his policy limit.

“Had Frisoli been properly informed of the offer of judgment and the risks associated with rejecting the offer of judgment, Frisoli would have accepted Tapia’s offer to settle the claim,” the lawsuit alleges.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Keating “deviated from accepted standards of practice and breached his duty of care in numerous ways leading up to the trial, during the trial, and post-trial, resulting in damages and harm to Frisoli.”

For example, Keating allegedly failed to timely submit expert reports supporting Frisoli’s causal defense that Kylie Tapia’s catastrophic, permanent damage was not caused by hypoxia, but rather by a rare autoimmune reaction known as gestational alloimmune liver disease (GALD).

As a result, Frisoli’s sole expert testified to the position that the child was not suffering from GALD, significantly harming Frisoli’s defense, the complaint alleges.

The medical malpractice lawsuit went to trial before a jury on September 27, 2018.

The jury awarded $11 million for Kylie’s future healthcare costs, $8 million for her disability and loss of enjoyment of life, and $1 million for her parents for loss of consortium.

Jurors also found that the settlement obstetrician was 70 percent at fault, and that Frisoli was 30 percent responsible.

Michael R. McAndrew, of the Long Valley Law Firm of Michael R. McAndrew, who filed the lawsuit on Frisoli’s behalf, declined to discuss the case.

Defendant Keating has withdrawn from Dughi Hewitt. That firm’s managing partner, Craig Domalewski, said in an email: “We are aware of the lawsuit. We deny the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the case.”