From the American Association for Justice: The New England Journal of Medicine published a new study on the effects of tort reform on emergency room department treatments. The researchers examined Medicare emergency room fee-for-service claims data from 1997-2011 in Texas, Georgia and South Carolina, all of which changed their emergency…
Dr. Rebecca Hierholzer is an emergency room doctor who practices in Missouri (and perhaps Kansas). She reportedly believes that the citizens of Missouri – some of whom she has undoubtedly treated as patients, some of whom she may know socially – are incapable of following the law when called to…
The number of jury trials in Tennessee personal injury and wrongful death cases continues to drop. For the year ended June 30, 2013, there were only 213 jury trials. Add to that another 225 non-jury trials for a 438 total tort trials. Shelby County (District 30) had 53 tort trials,…
Tennessee personal injury and wrongful death lawyers may be interested in my newest book, Compendium of Tennessee Tort Reform Statutes and Related Case Law, 2009-2013 (2nd ed.) The title says it all: the 180+ page book is a collection of Tennessee tort reform statutes and the cases interpreting those statutes.…
Nashville is the home of country music, and country music is filled with wonderful stories. I envy the ability of country music songwriters to tell a complete story in three minutes, purposefully injecting a handful of magical words called "the hook" to make that story stick in your mind and heart…
During the last five years the Tennessee General Assembly has passed dozens of bills that can be properly classified as "tort reform" statutes. Over fifty cases have already interpreted these statutes. My latest book, Compendium of Tennessee Tort Reform Statutes and Related Cases (2nd ed. 2013) has the full text of all…
Well, it ain’t much, but the Tennessee Legislature has fixed one small problem with the tort reform legislation that impacts all tort cases arising on or after October 1, 2011. The original legislation included a provision that required all future damages to be broken down "on an annual basis" for…
My last two posts (here and here) have discussed financial and related information about Tennessee’s largest insurer of physicians that I hope is of interest to Tennessee medical malpractice lawyers and patients. Now I am taking out my crystal ball and looking in the future of SVMIC’s defense of medical…
Last week I wrote a post titled " State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company -2012 Financial and Claims Data" that resulted in an unusual number of emails and phone calls. To those that took the time to reach out and thank me for the information, thank you – I appreciate your…
State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company (SVMIC), Tennessee’s bedpan mutual, has been around almost forty years. Started by doctors for doctors, it writes more medical malpractice insurance coverage for doctors and their extenders than any other professional liability insurer in Tennessee. The company is insuring a decreasing number of doctors in…