Gerard Scott, Attorney

Gerard Scott practicing in personal injury, medical malpractice, and products liability.

Gerard, nicknamed Jerry, grew up in Wichita and attended Wichita public schools. He graduated for Wichita Heights High School in 1977 and then began attending Wichita State University. Gerard's natural inclination for uncovering important facts and piecing together difficult to solve puzzle led him to pursue an Administration of Justice degree with emphasis in investigations. No stranger to hard work, Gerard spent his summer months during high school digging ditches for Utility Contractors, and his summer months during college working at a local meatpacking plant. In 1979 Gerard and his wife Marsha were married.

Gerard attended law school at the University of Kansas 1981-84. While Gerard attended law school, Marsha worked as an R.N. in Labor and Delivery. Marsha is an experienced obstetrical nurse and has worked as a manager and a staff nurse in labor/delivery departments at both large and small hospitals in Kansas and other states for almost 30 years. Gerard has a brother who is a general surgeon in Omaha, a brother who owns/operates Doc's Steak House, a brother in steel erection in NYC, and a brother in veterinary medicine in Jetmore, Kansas.

Gerard has handled over 100 medical malpractice cases involving many different medical conditions. To be successful in medical malpractice the lawyer must understand the medicine. Gerard has learned medicine by consulting with world renowned experts, and reading hundreds of medical texts and articles. Although he has family and friends in the medical profession and respects doctors and nurses, Gerard has a deep passion for representing the victims of medical malpractice. Gerard's passion developed as a result of his wife's injury from medical malpractice. In 1995, a year after Gerard graduated from law school in 1984 and began working as a criminal lawyer, Marsha suffered a spinal cord injury while undergoing surgery for scoliosis. Gerard was told by the surgeon that a surgical instrument had slipped and possibly contused the spinal cord, but that Marsha would fully recover.

In the months following the surgery the Scott's felt the surgeon was ignoring Marsha's injury. Nearly two years after the surgery it was apparent to Gerard and Marsha that not only had a surgical mistake been made, but also that permanent nerve damage had resulted. However apparent things were to Gerard and Marsha, the surgeon had recorded a different story in the medical records. The medical record of Marsha's intraoperative spinal cord monitoring indicated that no injury to spinal cord had occurred during surgery, and the surgeon's notes of her office visits during the months which followed failed to record her continuing neurologic deficits.

Gerard and Marsha were unable to find a malpractice lawyer to pursue her case, so with the help of his new law firm, Gerard began working on his first malpractice case. After much digging Gerard discovered evidence and testimony indicating that the medical report identified as recording Marsha's intraoperative spinal cord monitoring, actually belonged to another of the surgeon's patients. Somehow the information as to other patients surgical monitoring had been typed word-for-word onto a report with Marsha's name. Gerard was able to locate the other patient as well as the technician who performed the monitoring in both cases. The technician testified that the report with Marsha's name was a phony and did not reveal the truth regarding the untoward surgical event that had occurred.

During the nearly twenty years that have followed Gerard has handled many malpractice cases; many settlements and many trials. Stories similar to that of Gerard's wife have been repeated on several occasions--difficult cases that other lawyers have refused to take, eventual discovery of doctored or lost records, and eventually a favorable settlement or verdict, including several million for a young girl who suffered a spinal injury. Several of Gerard's cases have been extensively reported on local newspaper and television.

Gerard has tried many cases. His legal knowledge and his tenacious and relentless pursuit of justice is demonstrated by the large number of his cases which have been decided in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Kansas and published in the law books. Brooks v. Bennett, 29 Kan.App.2d 308, 26 P.3d 73 (2001); George v. Pauly, 30 Kan.App.2d 444, 45 P.3d 1 (2001); Wilson v. Knight, 26 Kan.App.2d 226, 982 P.2d 400 (1999); Cox v. Lesko, 263 Kan. 805, 953 P.2d 1033 (1998); Cox v. Lesko, 23 Kan.App.2d 794, 935 P.2d 1086 (1997); Honeycutt By and Through Phillips v. City of Wichita, 251 Kan. 451, 836 P.2d 1128 (1992); Honeycutt By and Through Phillips v. City of Wichita, 247 Kan. 250, 796 P.2d 549 (1990); State v. Turner, 239 Kan. 360, 721 P.2d 255 (1986); Duarte v. Debruce Grain, Inc., 276 Kan. 598, 78 P.3d 428 (2003); Brower ex rel. McKinney v. Bartal, 268 Kan. 43, 990 P.2d 1235 (1999); Hull v. Agustin, 22 Kan.App.2d 464, 918 P.2d 651 (1996); Williams v. Beech Aircraft Corp., Inc., 15 Kan.App.2d 685, 815 P.2d 1113 (1991).

Personal Injury
Car and Motorcycle Accidents
Medical Malpractice
Medication Errors