Jared Green Wins Granite State Advocate Award

Attorney Jared Green received the Granite State Advocate Award for his work in making significant changes in the law of the state. The award is given by the New Hampshire Association of Justice (NHAJ) to attorneys who, while representing their clients, pursue and help achieve substantive changes in the law of the state which improve the civil justice system, enhance the rights of citizens’ access to the courts, preserve the right of trial by jury or enhance the right of everyone to attain full, fair, and timely remedies for civil wrongs.

Green was nominated for the award for his excellent work representing Marc Chartier in the case of Chartier v. Apple Therapy of Londonderry, LLC.  In this case, Green convinced the NH Supreme Court to use the Corso v. Merrill standard for claims of emotional distress caused by negligence in cases involving medical negligence.

Marc Chartier’s wife, Lisa Chartier, died from a blood clot in her lung caused by deep venous thrombosis (DVT) that her doctors never diagnosed or treated. Green represented Chartier in bringing claims for medical malpractice against the orthopedic surgeon and physical therapists who didn’t diagnose and treat the DVT, as well as for causing emotional distress to Marc Chartier when he witnessed his wife’s death.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court explained that when Corso talked about seeing the “accident” and “accident victim,” it didn’t mean seeing the thing that caused the accident happen, but meant seeing something sudden, unexpected, and shocking happen that seriously hurt someone close to you. The Supreme Court said that Marc Chartier met this standard when he saw his wife die.

This decision is very important because it means that more people will have legal remedies when their loved ones are hurt in medical malpractice cases, especially in cases where someone dies and their family is limited in the amount they can legally recover for the loss of their loved one. This case lets family members who are still alive make their own claims that aren’t limited by statute, and it makes significant changes to the law and improves the civil justice system. It also helps survivors and family members who are hurt have better access to the courts so they can get full, fair, and timely help when they are hurt by emotional distress.

No other issue has caused more disagreement across New Hampshire Superior Courts than whether or not people can make claims for emotional distress caused by negligence in medical malpractice cases.

Jared Green’s hard work is why this change in the law happened.