Kerstein, Coren & Lichtenstein specializes in Professional and Licensing Law. We are experienced in defending professionals in Massachusetts, and we represent health care professionals, including individual practitioners, corporate providers, and group practices. Our attorneys appear regularly before licensing boards, including the Board of Registration in Medicine, the Board of Registration of Psychologists, and the Board of Registration in Nursing. Our firm has been retained to represent health care professionals in large numbers of cases, ranging from minor patient complaints to the most serious allegations of deliberate professional misconduct.

KCL also specializes in representing license applicants in cases where the Boards have concerns about licensure qualifications or an applicant's prior work or academic experience. Our attorney Andrew Hyams was General Counsel to the Board of Registration in Medicine for five years, during which time the Board promulgated its Patient Care Assessment Regulations. Attorney Milton Kerstein has represented health professionals in diverse matters, including fraud and abuse investigations, third-party audits, and disciplinary actions.

The state of Massachusetts follows the doctrine of modified comparative negligence in cases of malpractice. According to this, a claimant's action is barred if their own negligence exceeds the combined negligence of all defendants. Otherwise, the claimant's recovery is reduced proportionally according to his degree of negligence.

In all medical malpractice cases, juries are instructed that if they find the defendant or defendants liable, they must not award the plaintiff more than $500,000 for items of general damages unless it determines that there is substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function, substantial disfigurement, or other special circumstances.

Before a case can appear before the court, a tribunal consisting of a judge, a physician, and a lawyer must review every medical malpractice action to determine whether "the evidence presented if properly substantiated is sufficient to raise a legitimate question of liability appropriate for judicial inquiry or whether the plaintiff's case is merely an unfortunate medical result." The panel's findings, along with any expert testimony are admissible at trial.