Whenever a doctor settles a medical malpractice lawsuit, or a jury verdict is awarded against a doctor, that information goes into a National Practitioner Data Bank. This data bank is a big reason why many doctors refuse to agree to settlements, even for obvious malpractice incidents.
I took some time to review the 2013 statistics in the National Practitioner Data Bank to get a sense of how many settlements and jury verdicts have occurred in states with, and without, tort reform laws that places an arbitrary cap on damages.
The information may shock you…
States with tort reform laws don’t have fewer settlements and/or jury verdicts in medical malpractice lawsuits. For example, the Maryland legislature instituted caps on damages, yet Maryland has the third highest number of payouts for medical malpractice claims in the entire country. In addition, Minnesota – a state that has not instituted a cap on damages – is ranked second-to-last in medical malpractice payouts. In fact, Minnesota has fewer payouts than Virginia and North Carolina, even though both VA and NC have severe caps on non-economic damages in place.
So what does this all mean? Well, it means that if you hear someone say that the solution to fixing our nation’s health care problems is tort reform, kindly let them know that they’re fundamentally mistaken.
Tort reform does only one thing – deny victims of medical mistakes the opportunity to be appropriately reimbursed for the harms that they’ve suffered. How? Well, an arbitrary cap on damages only comes into play with a legitimate medical malpractice case. Think about it – the cap is enforced when a victim has made their case to a jury (as afforded under the U.S. Constitution) and that jury decided to award the victim an amount of money that exceeds the cap. This means the victim was able to convince the jury, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the doctor violated the standard of care and committed malpractice.
Tort reform does nothing to hinder or limit so-called “frivolous” claims.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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