Paul M. da Costa Secures Precedential Victory in the Appellate Division

Paul da Costa, partner at Sarno da Costa D’Aniello Maceri LLC, has recently secured a precedential victory in the Appellate Division.  In a published opinion,  Lasiw v. Hackensack University Medical Center, the Appellate Division agreed that our client had a right to obtain metadata and to inspect the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of her deceased husband from the Defendant Hospital.  In a case of first impression, the Appellate Division found that every patient has a right to relevant EMR metadata, and need not show an initial “need” for the data in order for it to be produced.  Dismissing the Defendants’ claims of potential “calamities” that would ensue, the Appellate Division found no reasonable objection or undue burden to the production of the data and the inspection of the EMR by an expert.  This is the first New Jersey Appellate Division decision on this issue, which had previously caused confusion and unreasonable delay in the discovery process in medical malpractice cases.  This decision should provide guidance for discovery requests of this kind going forward in all manners of litigation.