Medical malpractice tort reform is something that you may hear a lot about if you are a doctor. You may also hear a lot about this topic if you are considering filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. Over the last several years the filing of medical malpractice cases have increased on both the state and federal level. The increases in the filings have lead governing bodies on both the state and federal level to look more closely at the laws that are currently enacted and how they can be reformed to help protect the people as well as the healthcare professionals.
More About Medical Malpractice Tort Reform
Many citizens have requested that medical malpractice tort reform be considered because they did not agree with the caps on certain things, such as the damages that can be awarded to the plaintiffs. Doctors, on the other hand, are not happy that in some cases there are almost unlimited damages that can be awarded to any one individual. The result has been a close look at what can be done to reform the laws on a federal level, pre-empting any state laws. Some of what has been considered is as follows:
- Limits on pain and suffering damages at $250,000
- Three year statute of limitations to initiate any and all lawsuits involving adults
- Limits on attorney’s fees in the settlement of judgment
- Collateral source benefits allowable as evidence
- Payment plans offered for damages of more than $50,000
- Guidelines for offering or awarding punitive damages
- Doing away with instructing a jury about the limitations of damage awards
- Doing away with the ability to award damages against a corporation or company that has an FDA approved product
What the medical malpractice hopes to do is to create a uniformity of the laws from one jurisdiction to another. It can be difficult for people to determine what applies to them and where and when it applies to them. With the medical malpractice tort reform it will make filing as well as defending oneself against a medical malpractice suit much more straight forward. Until this point each state was operating on their own, and it was difficult to keep all of the laws straight and there are many existing loopholes. This medical malpractice tort reform seeks to do away with those loopholes and make the process of dealing with these claims much more straight forward.
