$500,000 Settlement Negotiated by Corboy & Demetrio

The estate of a 47-year-old woman, represented by Corboy & Demetrio attorney Michelle M. Kohut, has agreed to settled its lawsuit against psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Kaufman for $500,000.

The plaintiff began seeing Dr. Richard Kaufman, a psychiatrist, in June, 2000. She had three office visits with Dr. Kaufman; one on June 2, 2000, another on June 12, 2000 and one on October 18, 2000. Dr. Kaufman prescribed several medications for the plaintiff, including Welbutrin, Neurontin and amphetamines. Dr. Kaufman never saw the plaintiff again after the October, 2000 office visit but he continued to refill her prescriptions for over three years on the basis of phone calls the plaintiff made to him. On December 9, 2003, the plaintiff drowned herself in Lake Michigan. She is survived by her husband and 4 adult children.

The plaintiff alleged that Dr. Kaufman was negligent in treating the plaintiff in that he failed to conduct a full psychological evaluation of her, continued to prescribe medications for her without documenting the prescriptions or having her return to the office and failed to follow and evaluate her. At the time of her death, the plaintiff was a law student.