Medical Malpractice Damage Caps Debate
There are gubernatorial elections going on in quite a few states this year, but the debate between the two major candidates for Governor of Georgia caught our eye recently. The two candidates were on different sides of everything, which was not at all surprising. But we quite liked one particular quote from Democratic Party candidate Roy Barnes on the subject of tort reform:
"I find it somewhat ironic that we say that jurors - drawn from registered voter rolls - don't have enough sense to decide a case of damages. But, they do have enough sense to decide who is president, governor or even who has the very breath of life taken from them in a criminal case."
That is a point that is not brought up very often, which is a shame because we believe it to be a good one. Medical Malpractice Damage caps (which are essentially artificial and arbitrary limits placed on the amount of financial compensation that a victim of medical malpractice can receive) completely negate the judgment and intelligence of juries, who are trusted enough to vote in officials and put people to death, yet they are not to be trusted with a fair estimate of exactly how badly a human being has suffered.
These caps also tie the hands of judges, who might otherwise decide that a victim of medical malpractice has suffered so much that he or she certainly deserves more than the $200,000 or $300,000 that is the limit in states that have these caps.
There are similar policies in place that have also negated the opinions of judges and juries. Many drug cases in this country are decided based on what are called mandatory minimum sentences, which means a uniform standard of punishment for drug related offences. What this means is that a person who is caught with a certain amount of drugs gets a standard prison sentence, regardless of what the circumstances are. If a person who has no criminal record is caught with three ounces of cocaine, he or she would get the exact same prison sentence as a person with multiple prior convictions. Even if the judge or jury thinks that the person convicted deserves a much lighter sentence, the juries’ opinion is meaningless and the judge’s hands are tied. Even if the defendant pleads guilty and co-operates with the police, the sentence would be the same if the defendant clammed up and forced the state to go through a trial that lasted months. It is justice by rubber stamp, or justice by conversion chart.
These sentencing guidelines and damage caps essentially work under the idea that all of the cases are exactly alike, and therefore any sentences or judgments should be exactly alike. But we can tell you from experience that no medical malpractice case is identical. There is no set limit of ways for doctors to make mistakes, and there is no set limit of the amount of suffering that a victim of medical malpractice has to go through. It only makes sense that there should be no set amount of compensation for which a medical malpractice victim is eligible.
It is also important to realize that these caps don’t change anything about the practices of doctors. A good and conscientious doctor who makes an effort not to deviate from the standard of care, or immediately fixes the mistakes that he makes will not alter his habits because his insurance company has less of a financial liability. Doctors do not benefit from damage caps, and patients certainly don’t either. Insurance companies are the only people in this equation with anything to gain here, and why we as a nation have decided to essentially remove the function of juries and judges in order to benefit malpractice insurance companies is beyond us.
Greenberg and Bederman is a medical malpractice injury firm located in Silver Spring, Maryland. We serve the entire Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area, and that includes Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William County and all of Northern Virginia. If you or a loved one has been injured due to medical malpractice, contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free legal consultation today.
To learn more about our medical malpractice attorney, John Sellinger, please read hisbio, or watch his Youtube video.
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