The Republican dominated House of Representatives has passed HR 5, a tort reform bill designed to make it more difficult for patients to pursue medical malpractice cases. The bill passed 223-181. Ten Republicans voted against the legislation, and 7 Democrats crossed over to support the Republicans. Four Republicans voted "present."…
State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company, the professional liability insurance company owned by doctors, has once again lowered the cost of insurance paid by Tennessee doctors. Some highlights: The rate revision represents an overall rate decrease of 8.4% at limits of $1,000,000 / $3,000,000. This results in an average per physican…
Andrew F. Popper, a law professor at American University, has written an article entitled "In Defense of Deterrence." Here is an abstract of the article: The civil justice system deters misconduct. It generates far-reaching and positive market effects beyond victim compensation and recovery. Civil judgments, settlements, the potential for…
Texas passed an extensive anti-patient reform of its medical malpractice laws in 2003. How’s it going for them? Public Citizen says that "while litigation over malpractice in Texas has plummeted since the caps were imposed, residents of Texas (except for people with financial connections to liability insurance companies and, to…
AAJ received good news today regarding a case that was argued in the 14th Judicial District Court of Louisiana by the Center for Constitutional Litigation and Louisiana lawyer Oliver Schrumpf. CCL has worked on the case (Arrington v. Galen-Med, Inc.) for about four years, with support from AAJ and…
The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to determine whether a limit on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the state’s constitution. The law was passed in 2003 as part of a Republican-led effort to limit the rights of medical malpractice victims. The damages cap in Florida is $500,000 per…
Health care providers and their insurance companies have managed to persuade all too many Americans that holding providers responsible for malpractice is a bad thing. They also claim that the number medical malpractice claims and payments are increasing. I simply cannot respond to the first contention. The idea of holding…
The high court in West Virginia has refused to vacate legislation that placed a cap on damages for non-economic loss in medical negligence cases. In McDonald v. City Hospital, Inc., No. 35543 (W.Va. 6/22/2011) the court ruled that the West Virginia Constitution did not limit the power of the Legislature…
Here is a copy of the signed major tort reform legislation in Tennessee. The legislation changes venue rules, places caps on damages (compensatory and punitive), and changes the substantive law in products and consumer protection cases. More details later.
is an article by Larry Beinhart explaining how and why Corporate America seeks to limit access to our courts by pushing so-called "tort reform" legislation. Here A sample: Big business hates lawsuits. They hate being made accountable. They hate having to pay. So what can they do about it? They…