Recent GeorgiaNews
Third parties can’t sue doctors when injured by patients, says state high court
Physician advocates are praising a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling they say protects doctors from being sued unfairly by third parties who are injured by patients. In a Sept. 17 decision, judges said physicians owe no duty to nonpatients who are harmed because of a...
Ga. group offers way to curb health care costs
A Gallup survey this summer found that 26 percent of all health care spending in Georgia is on unnecessary tests. The state’s doctors ring up $15 billion annually in avoidable costs, mostly in efforts to create evidence in case they are sued. Just in the...
Trade Group Calls for Medical Liability Reform After Claim Loss Rates Rise 4%
Rising medical liability costs are named in a recent report as yet another source that’s sapping Medicaid funding, according to a new report by Aon Risk Solutions,prompting a long-term care provider trade group to call for state-by-state medical liability reform...
Current Medical Liability Laws
| Damage Caps | $250,000 cap on punitive damages. (1992) $350,000 cap on non-economic damages for a judgment against all health care provider(s); additional $350,000 cap on non- economic damages for a judgment against a single health care facility; $350,000 cap on non-economic damages for a judgment against multiple health care facilities. Maximum total award of non- economic damages is $1.05 million. (2005) (Ruled unconstitutional Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery PC v. Nestlehutt, March 2010) |
| Joint Liability Reform | Yes. Defendants are responsible only for their proportionate share of negligence. If the plaintiff is to some degree responsible for the injury or damages claimed, the judge must first decrease the damages based on the plaintiff’s degree of fault. |
| Collateral Source Reform | No |
| Attorney Fees Limited | No |
| Periodic Payments Permitted | Upon the request of either party, the court must establish a schedule of payments for future damages exceeding $350,000. |