Every day, somewhere in America more than 300 innocent men, women, and children become victims of medical malpractice at the hands of incompetent and negligent doctors. Maybe just like your own family doctor. And these people end up either dead or permanently injured. Last year, over 98,000 victims were killed by doctors. More than 4 million victims are permanently injured.

Today, the Insider Exclusive goes behind the headlines with Jerry Meyers, one of America's top medical malpractice lawyers, to examine how three different incompetent and negligent gynecologists failed to diagnosis and treat a 25-year-old mother of three who had 7 separate – that's right: 7 separate pap smears that tested abnormal – and yet all three doctors failed to the required further testing to rule out potential cervical cancer. This young mother died, three years later, in October 2007, from just that: cervical cancer.

Every year over 11,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with this cancer. If it is diagnosed early, treatment can be successful. On the other hand, a misdiagnosis can result in delayed treatment, and without the proper treatment, the survival rate decreases considerably and it sometimes leads to unnecessary and tragic death as in this case.

Jerry Meyers's passion is problem solving. He approaches each medical negligence case as a scientist trying to solve a puzzle. For 10 years, Jerry was on the front lines as a Navy medic and respiratory therapist. He's seen many patients suffer needless injury – and because of that, he is driven to help people who have been harmed by incompetent and negligent doctors. Jerry's goal is to make medicine safer and more accountable, and of course, to get justice for this young mother and her surviving children who were orphaned by her untimely death.

Jerry Meyers focuses exclusively on medical malpractice cases, an area to which he's devoted his entire 34-year career as an attorney. He approaches each medical negligence case as a scientist trying to solve a puzzle. Having worked in hospitals for nearly a decade as a corpsman and then as a respiratory therapist Jerry saw many patients suffer needless injury. He was driven to help individuals who had been harmed by the medical system. A native of Pennsylvania, Jerry was born in McKeesport in 1946 and grew up in Duquesne. He served the US Navy and then the Marines as a hospital corpsman, where he received his first medical training and hospital experience. He later worked as a respiratory therapist in teaching hospitals while attending college and law school. Meyers received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and his J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Miami. He has consistently received an AV rating (the highest mark for ability and professionalism) from his peers in the annual Martindale Hubbell Directory of American Lawyers. Jerry has been a visiting lecturer at various medical schools and teaching hospitals.

Meyers Giuffre Evans & Schwarzwaelder, LLC have successfully represented hundreds of individuals in malpractice, wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases, many of them against Pennsylvania's largest hospitals, health care providers and insurance companies. The firm's medical expertise and knowledge of malpractice law has resulted in numerous record settlements and verdicts in Pennsylvania courtrooms. Each of the firm's partners, attorneys, paralegals and on-staff medical practitioners are passionate about their work. Each lawyer brings a unique combination of experience, medical perspective and legal strategy to our client's cases. Our attorneys take every case seriously and on an individual basis, carefully considering medical issues and the facts unique to each potential case.

You can contact Jerry Meyers at 1-888-708-4699, or visit www.meyersmedmal.com

Saying he has "lived a blessed time," Sen. Edward Kennedy smiled broadly and flashed a thumbs up as he accepted an honorary degree Monday from his alma mater during a rare special convocation at Harvard University.

The 76-year-old senator walked onstage to a standing ovation and leaned lightly on a cane. He made no mention of his battle with cancer but sounded a reflective note toward the end of his eight-minute address.

"We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make," Kennedy said. "I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."

In being honored at a special convocation, Kennedy joins a select group that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Kennedy staffer, spoke at the ceremony, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden was among those in attendance. The event had been scheduled for last spring but was postponed as the senator recovered from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor.

Kennedy devoted nearly a third of his speech to the election of Barack Obama, describing the election of the first African-American head of state as a giant step forward in U.S. history, and one that marks a new beginning for the country.

He said he was "proud to have played a small part" in the historic election. Kennedy gave Obama a key endorsement during his hard-fought Democratic primary against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"There is no other time when I would rather receive this honor than this year — at this turning point in American history," he said.

Kennedy also defended his reputation as the "liberal lion" of the Senate, where he has served for 46 years.

He quoted his brother, former President John F. Kennedy, saying: "If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind ... someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights ... then I am proud to say I am a liberal."

Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 1956 and was elected to the Senate six years later to fill the seat held by his brother before he was elected president.

Breyer, a former assistant professor at the Harvard Law School, introduced himself not as a member of the Supreme Court, but as a "former member of the Kennedy staff" who cut his political teeth working in the senator's office.

He said he learned key lessons from Kennedy, including how to work across political divides.

"He'd say be generous with the credit," Breyer said, "If you're successful there'll be plenty of credit to go around, and if you're not successful, who wants credit for that?"

Breyer ticked off a list of some of Kennedy's legislative successes, including his push to foster neighborhood health centers and to expand health care for children and the mentally ill.

During his comments, Kennedy recalled his love of sailing in the waters off Cape Cod, a metaphor for what he said was the next great adventure in the nation's history.

"I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice," Kennedy said. "There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage."

New lawyers in Maryland could be paying a lot more to take the bar exam.

The Maryland Senate is debating whether bar exam fees should increase from $150 to $325 or as high as $400. The proposal has sparked a fiery debate among lawmakers, many of whom are lawyers.

Some say bar exam fees are too low and that the current fee doesn't cover state expenses. They also say doctors pay a lot more than lawyers to cover licensing.

But some lawmakers insist young lawyers are fresh out of school and don't have hundreds of dollars laying around to cover the higher costs.

The debate continues Thursday in the Senate.