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Saturday, March 11, 2006

Proposed Florida Legislation on Malpractice Experts

In 2003, the Florida Medical Association (FMA), backed by malpractice insurers, proposed a drastic change in the laws pertaining to medical malpractice. Their aim was to limit all non-economic damages to $250,000 in malpractice cases. They were unsuccessful in that draconian attempt, but they did succeed in persuading the legislature to limit non-economic damages to $500,000 as to physicians and other medical care providers and $750,000 as to hospitals. Walking the halls of the legislature in white lab coats and wearing stethoscope, doctors claimed that the legislation was needed because of frivolous lawsuits.

Frankly, the entire "frivolous" claim was fabricated by the medical lobby. Medical malpractice cases are waaaaay too expensive to even think of accepting a case without merit. I and my colleagues rarely, if ever, hear of cases that are without merit. We told this to legislators at every opportunity. Then, the Florida Senate made the bold move of placing people under oath. When that happened, no one in the medical lobby would blame frivolous lawsuits anymore. They shifted their argument to doctors leaving the state. But the statistics simply did not support them.

And don't forget, caps on damages don't affect frivolous cases; if they exist at all. Caps on damages simply make it impossible for the catastrophically hurt from ever recovering anything close to their full damages. The whole argument by the medical lobby and their insurers was a complete farce. The simple fact was that they did not want to be sued.

Now, in 2006, having failed to put a stop to malpractice suits, their next attempt is to require that all experts in malpractice cases be licensed to practice in Florida. Only Florida. Doesnt matter if you are trained at Harvard and practice at one of the best hospitals in North Carolina. The medical lobby doesnt want you to act as an expert n Florida. Such legislation will guarantee that defense experts will come from Florida, but it will virtually make it impossible for an injured party, or the executor of their estate, from finding an expert who would be willing to testify in a case of clear malpractice.

Why? Because the medical community will ostracize anyone who testifies that another doctor committed malpractice. It is for that reason that injured parties must often go to other states to find experts who will review a case and testify that malpractice occurred if it indeed did. By blocking those out of state physicians, the medical lobby makes it impossible to prosecute a medical malpractice case when a person is injured or killed by malpractice. In essence, it is legislation meant to protect the absolute worst of the doctors in Florida.

As this bill makes its way through the legislature, who will be your voice in Tallahassee? Your doctor? Most likely not. Insurance lobbyists? I don't think so. How about your community hospital? Nope. The fact is, you will have no voice in Tallahassee.

Take a minute and write your state house member and senator and let them know you oppose this legislation and tell them to oppose it. In the future, if malpractice were to ever take away you ability to work, this legislation will dictate whether you could ever mount a case against the persons responsible.

Be well. And all the best from all of us here at the firm.

posted by Mark Avera at 3/11/2006 10:37:00 PM

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