Deaf patient wins record settlement after doctor's refusal to provide sign language interpreter

From the ABA Journal:

Not providing the sign language interpreter requested by a deaf patient has cost a New Jersey doctor a $400,000 jury award.

And it may cost Jersey City rheumatologist Robert Fogari personally, since his malpractice carrier has denied coverage, as well as a defense, reports the New Jersey Law Journal. The plaintiff, Irma Gerena, sued under state and federal anti-discrimination laws.

"During a three-week trial before Superior Court Judge Mary Costello, Fogari argued it would have been an undue hardship to pay an interpreter when he was being reimbursed only $49 per visit by Gerena's insurer, but his tax returns showed he earned over $400,000 a year," the legal publication reports, relying on information from attorney Clara Smit, the plaintiff's attorney. An interpreter would have charged about $150 to $200 per visit.

Smit says the $400,000 verdict is a national record in such a case. About half of the total represents punitive damages.

A lawyer who defended a hospital in a similar case, Michael McGann of Ronan Tuzzio & Giannone in Tinton Falls, says an interpreter wouldn't necessarily be required, especially at every visit, just reasonable accommodation under the circumstances.

The case should be of particular interest to lawyers, because they, too, can be held liable for not providing sign-language interpreters, the legal publication notes.