Medical Malpractice Non Economic Caps
Non-economic damages in a medical malpractice case are essentially a way for you to be compensated for elements of your injury that were not directly financially detrimental to you. It’s the idea that you have been forced to go through real pain and real hardship as the result of the negligence of a medical provider, and as such you should be financially compensated. For instance, if the mistake of a doctor required you to have a lengthy and painful recuperation, having the doctor pay for the cost of that recuperation would not be enough, mainly because if it hadn’t been for the initial mistake in the first place, you wouldn’t have had to go through the painful recuperation at all. Spouses of victims of medical malpractice can also be compensated for non-economic damages, particularly if the malpractice resulted in the death of the victim.
Thanks to years of false assumptions, many people actually support caps on non-economic damages. The doctors and insurance companies have done a good job convincing many in the public that non-economic damages are driving up medical malpractice premiums and lining lawyers pockets. These same theorists will continue believing in the false public persona until they themselves become injured and realize what “caps” actually mean, especially if the injury is severe and the consequences are long lasting. What medical malpractice caps do for the injury victim in some cases is cause the severely injured to not be able to receive the money that they will need for a comparatively normal life, much less a life of “luxury.”
If you get injured by a doctor in the state of Maryland, you still have the option to bring legal action against the doctor, surgeon, nurse, medical professional employee or medical facility who was responsible for your injuries. And while there are some caps on damages in Maryland, they are not nearly as draconian here as they are in California or Texas. In Maryland, the caps on non-economic medical malpractice damages are dependant of the sort of suit that is filed.
For instance, if a malpractice case occurs where the victim suffers injuries, the cap for non-economic damages is $680,000. But if a malpractice case occurs where the victim died, the cap for wrongful death medical malpractice cases rises to $850,000 in the event that there is more than one beneficiary.
We oppose the idea of caps for the same reason that we oppose mandatory minimum sentences. A legal verdict is not something that can be placed on a menu, as the circumstances for each case are different. Just as it makes no sense to automatically put a first time, low level drug offender behind bars for ten years, it also makes no sense to have an arbitrary limit on the amount of compensation that someone can receive if they become injured due to the negligence of someone else.
Believe it or not, Marylanders are somewhat fortunate in that the pain and suffering caps are higher than many states. A great number of states have an arbitrary cap with limits around $250,000. For all the discussions about how this helps doctors by keeping their insurance premiums down, it doesn’t do much to help the people who actually get injured, and there’s no real evidence that insurance premiums have declined accordingly.
We came across an article emphasizing this very premise in (of all places) Forbes Magazine. In an article by David A. Hyman, the consequences of these caps are laid bare:
The poor, the unemployed and the elderly are unable to find attorneys to help them in their cases. Since the only real compensation that these people can qualify for is non-economic damages (since they aren’t working or aren’t working in jobs that pay them a substantial salary,) most lawyers would end up losing money on taking a medical malpractice case of this sort due to the discovery process, which involves depositions and hiring expert witnesses.
We find this profoundly unfair. People who get injured due to the negligence of others are essentially being priced out of the legal system. This appears to be a system that works for some people, but not others, with the line of demarcation being the income level. This isn’t how the justice system is supposed to work. Your credit score or bank account should not be the determining factor as to whether or not you are treated fairly.
It is also a fallacy that it is medical malpractice lawsuits which are “forcing” insurance companies to raise their rates. The only thing that “forces” an insurance company to raise its rates is the insurance companies themselves. And considering that the number of malpractice lawsuits, judgments and settlements haven’t gone up significantly in decades, even when you adjust the numbers for inflation, the idea that insurance companies are losing money is a farfetched one at best.
While Maryland’s caps aren’t as draconian as those in California or Texas, it still means that people are not being properly compensated for severe or permanent injuries, to which we ask for what reason?
To learn more about medical malpractice issues, please read our medical malpractice page. To learn more about our medical malpractice lawyer, John Sellinger, please read Sellinger’s bio, or watch his video on youtube.
If you believe you are a victim of medical malpractice, please contact Greenberg & Bederman for a free medical malpractice legal consultation.
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