What exactly is the problem with capping malpractice awards? It’s a ridiculous notion that doctors are punished through outrageously high punitive damages.

@Dallasite Not terribly ridiculous, considering that a medical mistake can lead to a lifetime of suffering and/or discomfort. It’s not like human bodies are like engine blocks that you can replace when a mechanic forgets to recap your oil pan after a change

@Wick The problem with the influx of physicians is that they aren’t evenly distributed. Big cities, especially suburbs, benefit from the doc boom, but poorer areas of Texas don’t substantially increase their medical personnel — but probably need the doctors more than city-slickers do.

Does Texas really want the doctors who are afraid they’re going to be sued for malpractice? I’d rather have the ones who know what they’re doing.

Spamboy,

I understand that it can lead to suffering. My point is that it doesn’t punish the doctor in any way whatsoever. Unlimited punitive damages may give the victim the monetary equivalent of a winning lottery ticket, but it is the consumers who have to pay for that lottery ticket, not the doctor.

If there is malpractice it should be a criminal issue, not a tort issue. I’m sorry that the victim is hurt, but all of society shouldn’t have to be punished so that he gets to drive a new Hummer to help alleviate his pain.

Punitive damages should be abolished throughout our court system.

C.R.: Spoken like a true personal injury attorney. If you’re not one, you should suit up, because you’ve obviously already sampled the Kool-Aid and liked it. If you want to know why insurance companies have been forced to raise premiums, take a gander at the opulent estates of Fred Baron, Frank Branson, and their ilk. Don’t kid yourself.

@Dallasite Abolishing punitive damages throughout the entire court system would take away one of the few means to incentivze individuals and corporations to modify their behavior when it is rampant and negligent. Think oil spills, intentional dumping of asbestos in open landfills, and hospitals amputating the wrong limb.

Adam,

Insurance companies have raised their premiums due to several factors, not just Fred Baron and his peers. One reason is that they have had to pay out more than expected in recent years because of disasters/catastrophes. Further, insurance companies like to automatically deny claims, which results in (wait for it….) litigation. If an insurance company lawyers up from the get go, how is the average American supposed to even hope for fairness on his own? Get over yourself: should something bad happen to you you’ll go crying or fuming (or hobbling) to the nearest and best lawyer you can find.

Dallasite,

you missed my point, but I didn’t expect you to get it (so it’s ok). How does society pay for a judgement levied against a negligent party? Fred Baron did make a lot of money representing many many many many clients in one of the largest asbestos class actions in the country. Should the victims he represented just be kicked to the curb because “something bad happened” due to their exposure to a deadly toxin–many times in the workplace? None of those people who were awarded damages won the lottery. It was a suit that took years to build, and cost multiple millions to hire experts, conduct studies, take depositions and gather relevant evidence and legal information. In this world, things take time and cost money–no one gets anything for free ever.

Here is the thing: everyone thinks that personal injury attorneys are lecherous creatures who go after innocent small business owners and doctors and everyday people for profit. It’s unfortunate that Jim Adler and his tough Texas hammer BS have given such a bad public image to the profession. But when you speak about these ambulance chasers, you’re really talking about a very minor contingent of the legal community (people know who they are, and they don’t make many waves).

Attorneys represent clients, and execute their clients wishes to the best of their abilities. If you don’t like the system, please, by all means, go change it. What? No more personal injury attorneys? Where are you going to stop? I hope nothing bad ever happens to you, otherwise I just expect you to lick your wounds and walk away–because, hey, bad stuff happens.

Hope you never have an injury, caused by someone else unintentionally (think car accident, uninsured driver–very very very very very likely in the State of Texas) that results in massive medical bills that your insurance wouldn’t cover. Pretty sure you’ll have to sell the high horse…

By the way, Dallasite, what exactly do you do? You keep talking about “winning the lottery.” Is that a secret dream of yours? Would that get you out of one of the northern homogenous burbs and actually into the city?

Oh where do I start, Peterk?

1. Plaintiff’s lawyers are not filing lawsuits “at the drop of the hat”. Medical malpractice lawsuits were declining way before the caps were voted in by gullible voters.
2. Plaintiff’s lawyers almost always work on a contingency basis. There are a few out there who think they can just get a settlement offer to avoid the cost of litigation. They are the bottom dwellers and they often get tore apart in the discovery process. Most of them have moved into premises liability and car accidents, to do “slip and fall” cases and “soft tissue injury” lawsuits. No caps, but plenty of small paychecks add up.
3. The contingency fee percentage means a plaintiff’s lawyer has to pay out of his/her pocket until a judgement or settlement agreement is reached. Medical experts and depositions can be very expensive. A malpractice lawsuit has to have experts testify to the negligence before the case can be brought to trial. This is an unavoidable part of the discovery process. This means that a plaintiff’s lawyer has a much harder time getting a check from an insurance company.
4. It is true that many claims “have no basis in fact.” These cases are weeded out really quickly. As to standard of care and the patient’s responsibility for their own care, the experts are charged with making those assessments. They do a pretty good job at it, too. That is why they are called expert witnesses.
5. Ask any local judge how many medical malpractice cases make it to a jury trial. Very few. These cases are not clogging up the courts like you may have been led to believe.
6. Despite what you hear from pundits and politicians, the system is working and the major injustice is the caps on punitive damages. The insurance lobby wants to avoid losing money, but they aren’t pushing for open records on doctors and the amount of accidents and mistakes they have had over the years. Instead of caps, how about a rating system for doctors and medical personnel that will let the insurance companies, hospital HR departments, and the consumer decide whether to let them practice medicine?
7. Citing John Edwards, a lawyer in another state with different rules of evidence and procedure is just negligent in itself. Next time, give an example of a recent case in Texas, during a jury trial, where the plaintiff’s lawyer was allowed to get away with theatrical bullshit.
8. If an insurance company settles rather than fights, then they are ******. A good defense counsel can effectivly keep the shysters at bay while only settling cases that have merit.
9. In the long run, it is not cheaper just to write checks. The process that is in place rewards those who persevere, plaintiffs and defense. By sticking it out and finding the truth, justice can be served.
10. Who cares if a insurance policy has to be paid in full? I pay my taxes in full, without a payment plan. It is the price of being a doctor, lawyer, or any other licensed professional. If it is that hard to pay premiums in full, maybe they should negotiate for a payment plan.
11. The insurance company raises the cost of malpractice insurance. It sure is funny, the insurance companies promised lower across-the-board malpractice insurance rates if the caps were put in place, but it didn’t happen did it? Maybe the insurance companies manipulated the doctor’s, nurses, hospitals and their respective lobbies down in Austin. Nah, insurance companies are way too honest… Only the nasty plaintiff’s lawyers are bad.
12. I didn’t know “many (ob-gyns) stopped delivering babies as it became too expensive for them.” Where do the pregnant moms go these days? I haven’t read anything in the news about a shortage of doctors who could deliver babies. Not in Texas or the U.S., but maybe the big bad plaintiff lawyers are suing the media in frivolous lawsuits to keep those stories from us…
13. I feel sorry for you Peterk. I hope if you are ever negligently harmed by a faulty product or negligent professional, you do seek redress from those that may have been negligent. Handy tip: stay away from Ford Pintos and that pretty painted coffee mug that was made in China.

Disclaimer: Nope, I’m not a lawyer, but I am an independent thinker.

Oh boy, where do I begin? My husband is an obstetrician. Thanks to tort reform, his med mal declined by about $10,000. His only lawsuit in 26 years was filed in the pre-tort reform rush to file. He’s uber compulsive — when he’s had surgery he writes “this knee” on the correct leg in a magic marker. We have friends who were neurosurgeons — when their med mal hit $100,000 a year they simply closed up shop. A lot of OBs are saying adios. The people who wanted Tort Reform the most were in the Valley because they couldn’t find doctors to deliver their babies! The current med mal system is a totally inefficient way to deal with negligence and has greatly contributed to the mess that our medical system is this day. Besides, the attorneys took home a huge part of every settlement — i.e. John Edwards. If attorneys are so genuinely concerned about doctors wronging patients, then why are so few suing docs in Texas since Tort Reform? Because half of $250,000 isn’t worth it no matter how badly the “doc screwed up”. (Most don’t, really.) Look at all the health care attorneys who have switched to other specialties. But more importantly, we need to do something about the entire health care system. It is a shambles. Socialized medicine is not the answer — that will cost us 60% in income taxes and we still won’t get any decent care. Did you know that three-quarters of all people who file for bankruptcy do so because of over-powering health care costs? (The docs do not get paid.) Of those, half have health insurance — they have inadequate coverage, huge deductibles. I just read this article in Forbes (http://mobile.forbes.com/sitehtm/mobile.php?UMPG=article&UM_SCTN=News&UM_ARTICLE_LINK=http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/05/05/physicians-training-prospects-lead-careers-cx_tw_0505doctors.html) describing the dimishing supply of docs in the U.S. In OB, for example, 77% of the residents are now women which is great, but they tend to work about half as much as the male OBs because they like to raise families. So that essentially means we are turning out about half as mnay OB’s. My point: there is going to be a terrific shortage of docs in this country in about ten years. The insurance companies have made life hell for physicians, and most physicians’ incomes have been cut in half in the last several years so that $10,000 savings on med mal is a drop in the bucket. My Rx, for what it’s worth: require everyone to carry basic health insurance. We require auto insurance, why not insurance on our bodies? The government needs to get tough with the insurers — limit their profits, make it illegal to deny care for pre-existing conditions, force them to sell individual policies at the same cost as they do group. We need to investigate the hanky-panky at places like United Health Care, which owns a company called Ingenix. Ingenix was setting up fee schedules for physician reimbursement — my, how convenient, I’ll set up whatever fee my parent company wants me to and call it reasonable and customary. He who owns the gold rules, so maybe it’s time to tell those rulers how they have to play with their gold!

Robert Bork, anyone?

If they would abolish all non-compensatory damages then personal injury lawyers might have to start contributing to society instead of just leaching off of it.