Monday, March 07, 2005

NY Times: Malpractice Lawyers are Resourceful

The New York Times published a piece on malpractice this weekend.



In states that already cap some damages - the ones labeled "pain and suffering" - the study finds that total awards have remained pretty much the same. This suggests that plaintiffs' lawyers have simply recast their cases to encourage juries to award the same amounts under different names - for, say, "lost wages."

However the study ignores cases that are settles out of court:

The new study, by Catherine M. Sharkey, a law professor at Columbia, may change
that. The study, to be published in the New York University Law Review in May,
analyzed jury verdicts in 22 states in 1992, 1996 and 2001. It did not consider
cases settled out of court
. It found that the median compensatory award in
states with caps on damages was $324,000, compared with $387,000 elsewhere -
figures that Professor Sharkey found were roughly equivalent after the data was
adjusted for variables like the kind and number of plaintiffs and defendants,
the percentages of local doctors and lawyers, and jurors' wealth and ages.


Link...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for reporting facts but do you want to know why its down so much? you can no longer file a legitimate claim it has been made almost impossible- I am a 35 year old female that had a baby 2 years ago and cannot find a lawyer who will "get involved" as they express it because its too complicated- well the truth of the matter is there are 2 doctors who are the chief and director of the hospital who delivered me who are advocates against malpractice and are very politically connected. I was informed that I had 3 counts of negligence ust during my pregnancy alone. I am on my way to become crippled- I have sever neuropathy damage to my brain I did not take care of my daughter her first year I have diabetes remaining from the pregnancy, all of my female organs are adhered have had 2 surgeries need more but they cant do because they dont know if I would make it through major surgery, 2 hernias and many more problems and thanks to the new measures on malpractice law they will get away with it. Did I mention I was a very successful management consultant for a healthcare firm made good money and am now disabled