Lawyers say 'sorry' may sink you in court.

Joanne Brindley just wants to hear "I'm sorry."

A disabled woman with many medical problems, the Boston-area resident prepared for a mastectomy in 2004 by notifying her medical team that she required a local anesthetic because of previous complications with full anesthesia.

Her surgeon agreed and the plan was documented in her medical chart. On the day of the surgery, however, the only thing that kept her from being put to sleep was Brindley's protest, which invoked a loud and ugly confrontation with an anesthesiologist who was surprised, confused and not on board with the plan.

"I'm strapped down, partially nude, scrubbed--and she's holding a clipboard over my face, saying 'you have to sign for general anesthesia,'" Brindley recalls.

Eventually another anesthesiologist administered a local anesthetic, the procedure was performed--and Brindley became a poster child for an organization that encourages physicians to apologize for medical errors.

"I just want her to say, 'I'm sorry' and understand how her words hurt so she doesn't do it again," Brindley said on the Sorry Works! Coalition Web site. "That's all I want. That's all most patients and families want."

That may be true, but some health care lawyers warn that "I'm sorry" should not trip lightly off a physician's tongue. While they agree that physician apologies may be appropriate in some circumstances, these lawyers are reluctant to embrace the apology movement that is sweeping the health care industry.

"From a straight legal sense, are apologies a smart thing to do? It depends on what you're apologizing for and what information is out there and what liability you're incurring," says Michael Levinson, MD, JD, a health care lawyer at Zuckerman Spaeder in Miami. "Common sense would dictate yes, apologize--but we live in a world full of liability and the ramifications of that can be very far-reaching."

Sorry = confession?

Those two little words--"I'm sorry"--can work wonders. Drain the coffee pot before your spouse gets one last cup? "I'm sorry" is the obvious first thing to say, almost guaranteed to build good …