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Special points of interest:
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November 7… and Beyond
In the run-up to November’s mid-term elections, Protect Patients Now continues its campaign to highlight the urgent need for national medical liability reform with our Candidate Pledge initiative and our recently rolled out Voter Pledge drive.
If you haven’t yet visited our new online Voter Pledge Center, it’s not too late to add your name to the growing list of citizen supporters here.
Looking beyond November, Protect Patients Now will continue to implement its long-term strategy to end medical lawsuit abuse and protect patients’ access to quality medical care.
Dr. Weinstein on the Texas Turn-Around
 Nearly twelve million listeners recently tuned in to hear the Chairman of Doctors for Medical Liability Reform, Stuart L. Weinstein, MD, discuss the dramatic turn around in Texas since the passage of Proposition 12, the constitutional amendment that locked in medical liability reforms in that state and made it a model for national legislation. To hear Dr. Weinstein’s full remarks, click here.
In a related nationally-published op-ed, Dr. Weinstein examines the recent spate of liability insurance rate cuts since Prop. 12 and asks the pertinent question, “Have insurance companies in Texas suddenly become less greedy?” Or is Texas dramatic proof that caps on non-economic damages work?
The answer to that question can be found by reading Dr. Weinstein’s op-ed here.
A Ruse by Any Other Name
In our last newsletter, we reported on the recent name-change by our friends in the trial bar. As the words “trial lawyers” have apparently taken on an unsavory connotation with the American people (we can’t imagine why), the erstwhile “Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)” has now become the “American Association for Justice.”
In an amusing twist, the moniker ATLA has now been adopted by those true champions of justice, “Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse.” Their newly inaugurated website is now included on our list of fellow medical liability reform supporters. To view the full rundown of links to ally organizations, click here.
Trial Lawyers in Disarray
 This month’s issue of the Journal of the American Bar Association paints a distressing picture of the effects of medical liability reform – distressing, that is, if you happen to be a trial lawyer. For the rest of us, however, it’s reason to rejoice.
Apparently, medical liability reform in Texas has thrown whole practices into disarray. Firms are breaking up, and lawyers that used to make a killing suing doctors are now being forced to leave the state and even find new jobs!
Click here to read the full ABA article.
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