(1928 - 1986)
Richard Dick Paulson was born in 1928 and died in 1986. He was active in supporting the rights of injured people. Richard testified before Congress in 1975 against the proposed Federal Medical Malpractice Act on behalf of the Association of Plaintiff Trial Attorneys.
In 1975, Richard Paulson represented Bernadette Asher who went to the hospital for a common gynecological operation. As a result of what a jury determined to be malpractice by the anesthesiologist, she suffered permanent brain damage. She had no use of her hands and arms and limited use of her legs. She had been a bilingual typist at the World Bank and was the mother of three children. The jury awarded her $1.55 million.
This case was one of the first to use an expert economist to predict a plaintiff's losses. Richard's economist predicted that if properly invested, $1.9 million would cover Bernadette's losses. The jury award was $350,000 less than his request
