Tort Un-Reform
This week brings good news that Lawmakers introduced an Assembly bill that would remove the key element of the 2004 medical malpractice reform initiative: Namely, the $350,000 cap on pain and suffering. The incentive for the bill is the Hepatitis C crisis unfolding in Southern Nevada. The bill also allows additional time to file claims.
Medical malpractice is any action for personal injury against a healthcare provider based on professional negligence. This term is most often used to apply to a law suit brought by a patient against his or her physician as a result of getting “bad care.”
We all may recall the “Keep Our Doctors in Nevada” propaganda in 2003 that ultimately persuaded the vote to reform malpractice lawsuits. The insurance companies, leading the bridled doctors along with them, convinced unknowing consumers that their insurance premiums were rising and the selection of doctors lowering because lawyers were filing frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits.
I was trying a medical malpractice case in the old courthouse when the initiative was on the ballot. I remember watching my jurors have to cross the picketers on the courthouse steps holding signs to “Keep Our Doctors in Nevada!” I won the case but the jury told me later they thought they could only award $350,000! My client had permanent brain damage.
From 2003 until present, doctors have gotten away with as much as using contaminated needles on patients passing along viruses. Hopefully consumers and voters have come to their senses regarding holding the medical professionals they trust with their care accountable.
This is an important issue that I will keep my eye on.
