Justice Department can't find liability
crisis
By Quad-City Times September 9, 2005
Runaway jury verdicts generated headlines during state legislative sessions earlier this year. Illinois lawmakers approved a cap on pain and suffering damages specifically for physicians and hospitals. With the approved cap, the Illinois State Medical Society insisted that the flood of lawsuits that keep driving up malpractice insurance costs should subside.
A new Department of Justice study can't find the flood. In examining 18 years of federal court cases, the Justice Department found fewer lawsuits, fewer trials, fewer settlements and awards that average far below the caps some physicians groups insist are needed. In short, the Justice Department study debunked just about every premise presented to Congress for tort reform.
The study didn't cover state courts, where most medical malpractice is litigated. But that's been extensively researched. Rock Island County doesn't total medical malpractice cases, but the number of civil lawsuits involving claims of more than $50,000, which would include all malpractice claims, has dropped in each of the past three years. Iowa tracks medical and dental malpractice cases. The number has dropped significantly statewide and stayed about the same in Scott County.
There definitely is a medical crisis that needs to be licked. But it involves soaring insurance costs, not claim experiences. This Department of Justice research shows that it can't be lawsuits driving those insurance costs.
Source: the U.S. Department of Justice report, "Federal Tort Trials and Verdicts, 2002-03" is available online at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fttv03.htm <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fttv03.htm.
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