Recent News
Insurer: Texas malpractice rates decreasing since liability reforms
Due to medical liability reforms in the state, Texas physicians will pay less for liability coverage next year, according to the state's largest provider of malpractice insurance. In a statement released today, the board of governors of the Texas Medical Liability...
GOP bill would create health care tribunals
Washington - New House legislation aims to curb the overuse of health care by establishing clinical best practices for physicians and creating health care tribunals to hear medical liability cases. "The practice of defensive medicine adds billions of dollars of...
NC House overrides 3 Perdue vetoes to make laws
RALEIGH N.C. -- Victims of North Carolina doctors guilty of medical malpractice will be limited to $500,000 what they can collect for pain, suffering and lost body parts under legislation the state House passed into law over a veto by Gov. Beverly Perdue. The state...
W.Va. Supreme Court OKs State’s Cap for Non-Economic Damages in Case
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals stuck by the state’s cap for medical liability non-economic damages in its June 22 decision on a case filed against City Hospital. James D. MacDonald and his wife Debbie filed the suit in February after James had undergone...
Ohio court ruling may expose doctors to unending lawsuits
The Ohio State Medical Assn. and others are asking the Supreme Court of Ohio to review a lower court's ruling they say exposes physicians to an endless risk of negligence claims. An appellate court decision in Ruther v. Kaiser found that the state's statute of repose...
TN gov signs bill placing caps on lawsuit payouts
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A measure to cap payouts for medical malpractice and other civil cases is good for business in Tennessee, said Gov. Bill Haslam, who signed the bill Thursday. The law places a $750,000 cap on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, and the...
Surgical liability cases drop nearly 80% at Texas medical center
Texas trauma surgeon Basil Pruitt Jr., MD, was confident the state's tort reform measures had reduced lawsuits at the medical center where he practices. But he and fellow physicians were shocked when they learned by how much. A study published in the April issue of...
New Directions in Medical Liability Reform
Medical liability reform has maintained a tenacious hold on the national policy agenda. During the first several years of the 21st century, a malpractice insurance “crisis” prompted vociferous demands by organized medicine and liability insurers for tort reforms to...
Oklahoma enacts cap on noneconomic damages
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law a series of tort reform measures, including a $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages in civil liability cases. The Oklahoma State Medical Assn. said the cap is a victory in its fight for comprehensive medical liability...
Legislature wants to clamp down on lawsuits, entice doctors in bid to rein in Medicaid
TALLAHASSEE — Republican lawmakers struggling to contain Florida's $20 billion-and-growing Medicaid program are taking an unconventional approach: They're going after trial lawyers and the rights of injured patients to sue. Although lawsuits, insurance premiums and...