Recent News
As malpractice verdicts drop in Pennsylvania, officials disagree on implications
Medical malpractice jury verdicts hit a 15-year low statewide last year, a sign the medical community sees as welcome relief from escalating insurance premiums but lawyers view as evidence that injured patients are being unfairly denied an opportunity for redress. In...
Medical Malpractice Proposal Seeks Out Public Vote
Advocates of capping noneconomic damage awards in lawsuits against health care providers have taken a new tack. They want to amend the Arkansas Constitution instead of making change through the Arkansas Legislature. “Every time we wanted to do something legislatively,...
Legal reform would benefit business in New York
E.J. McMahon’s recent column in the Poughkeepsie Journal champions reform of New York’s Scaffold Law, possibly the most litigation-friendly statute in the nation (“N.Y. leaders have means to improve business climate,” May 16). His attention to the law highlights how...
AHRQ Toolkit Helps Health Care Organizations and Providers Communicate With Patients and Families When Harm Occurs
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) today released a new online toolkit to help hospital and health system leaders and clinicians communicate accurately and openly with patients and their families when something goes wrong with their care. The...
Illinois’ Court Set to Rule on Liability Limitations
Under fire in the state of Illinois are the statute of limitations for medical liability lawsuits, with the possibility that they could be extended and leave physicians indefinitely vulnerable to medical lawsuit abuse. Currently in Illinois, wrongful death suits must...
AG approves ballot bid on lawsuits
Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict the size of jury verdicts against medical care providers cleared a hurdle Wednesday in their effort to get the proposal on the November ballot. On Wednesday, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge...
Court case could extend medical liability
A state supreme court is set to decide whether the two-year statute of limitations for filing a wrongful death lawsuit should start, as it does now, from the time of death or from the moment the plaintiff learns of the circumstances that may have contributed to or...
Study ranks Texas 6th best state for docs, expert points to tort reform
A recent study found Texas is one of the best states for physicians to practice medicine, a high ranking made possible in part due to the passage of tort reform measures in 2003, says one expert. In late March, WalletHubb released its “2016’s Best & Worst States...
State lawmakers are set to consider increasing Indiana’s cap on medical malpractice payments for the first time in 17 years
State lawmakers are set to take up a proposal that would increase Indiana's cap on medical malpractice payments for the first time in 17 years. The bill scheduled for review by an Indiana Senate committee on Monday would boost the state's current limits on what...
Editorial: Subjecting out-of-state M.D.s to NM law risky
A medical malpractice lawsuit filed in Albuquerque by a Curry County woman who had gastric bypass surgery in 2004 at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock has sent a thorny question to the New Mexico Supreme Court. While it would seem reasonable...