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Tort Reform Roundup: Kentucky & Missouri
In this edition of Tort Reform Roundup, we look at a pair of states considering some major tort reform initiatives. In Kentucky, a sweeping measure aimed at capping attorney fees on medical malpractice damages, has passed the State Senate Health & Welfare...
Senate panel explores medical tort-reform bill
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A sweeping measure to regulate everything from trial attorney fees, medical record copying charges and how malpractice lawsuits are brought passed the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee yesterday. The legislation was described as an omnibus...
AMA Studies Show Continued Cost Burden of Medical Liability System
The American Medical Association (AMA) today released a new series of trend reports in its Policy Research Perspective series illustrating the price Americans pay for the nation’s broken medical liability system. “Information in this new research paints a bleak...
N.D. law limiting damages in malpractice cases ruled unconstitutional
A judge has found a North Dakota law limiting damages in medical malpractice cases to be unconstitutional. In a case involving a woman who was disabled due to a surgery at CHI St. Alexius Health, South Central Judicial District Judge Cynthia Feland denied a motion...
Push Continues for Medical Liability Reform — Slowly
In late June, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would impose a number of restrictions on malpractice litigation, including a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damage awards. Click here to read our original report on the vote. In this follow-up, we check on...
Top cases show physicians had a forceful ally in the courts
One thing physicians from Florida to Hawaii had in common in 2017 was that the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies had their backs. The Litigation Center was involved in legal battles that helped prevent an insurance...
High Court’s Contempt for Lawmakers’ Authority, Lawsuit Rackets Place Florida atop Latest ‘Judicial Hellholes’ List
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 5, 2017 – The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its 2017-2018 Judicial Hellholes® report today, naming courts in Florida, California, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana among the nation’s “most unfair”...
Court Stays Order Striking Down Medical Review Panel Law
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Court of Appeals has stayed a lower court's ruling striking down a state law requiring a panel of doctors to review medical malpractice cases before going to trial. Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd's Oct. 30 order...
Florida Supreme Court tosses out part of state medical malpractice law
TALLAHASSEE-- Saying that changes approved by lawmakers “have gashed Florida’s constitutional right to privacy,” a sharply divided Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected parts of a controversial 2013 medical-malpractice law. Justices, in a 4-3 decision, said the...
Judge strikes down new Kentucky law creating medical review panels
Dealing a major blow to efforts to curb supposedly frivolous malpractice claims, a judge has struck down a new Kentucky law creating medical review panels to screen such cases before they go to trial. In a ruling Monday, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd found...