DALLAS – Dallas attorney Charla Aldous has joined an exclusive group of American lawyers. Ms. Aldous has been recognized by Lawyers Weekly USA for her representation of a Dallas cardiologist who claimed that his practice was ruined when three fellow doctors and a hospital worked together to suspend his privileges to perform heart procedures.
The jury in U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis’ court in Dallas awarded
the cardiologist, Dr. Lawrence Poliner, $366 million, including $110 million
in punitive damages. According to the editors of Lawyers Weekly USA, the
verdict ranks 6th in the publications annual survey of the nation’s
largest verdicts.
“It was really David taking on Goliath,” Ms. Aldous told the
publication. “I wouldn’t say [my client] is elated, but he
is very relieved that this long battle is over. The hospital was protecting
its own doctors and treated him inappropriately.”
This is the second time Aldous has appeared in Lawyers Weekly USA’s Top Ten Verdicts issue, having won a $268 million med-mal award in 2000 for a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who died while her trachea was being repaired.
In the Poliner case, Aldous argued to jurors that her client had been wrongly accused of poor patient care because they feared competition from Dr. Poliner.
Aldous, founding partner of Aldous \ Walker LLP, represents clients in personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability, civil rights, birth injury, and wrongful death lawsuits.