OMG! LOL!

Hi to all you texters out there.

I thought about doing an entire post just using text abbreviations, that would be fun, but I think I would lose everyone over 30!

- OMG!
- WITW?
- IDK.
- PLOS!
-LMAO!
- 4COL!

Now back to sad reality. OMG is pretty well understood, but I am afraid that LOL does not mean Laughing-out-loud. In this case it means either Land-of-Lincoln or the more derisive term Land-of-Lawyers. This week in the Wall St. Journal editorial pages, pg A12, 2/6/10, there appears this article:

There are many plaintiffs lawyers flying back and forth to Chicago now in very expensive suits. Apparently in the case Lebron vs. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, a 4-2 majority (Illinois Supreme Court) ruled that the state's 2005 Medical Malpractice Reform Act was unconstitutional because it interfered with judges' ability to "reduce" monetary verdicts. This interfered with the separation of powers. Before this law was ruled unconstitutional, the medical malpractice awards for pain and suffering were capped at $500,000.00 for docs and $1 million for hospitals. Now, they say, all bets are off.

Before the 2005 tort reform law, Illinois was a lawsuit lottery bonanza for lawyers. Between 1998 and 2003 when there were no caps on damages and awards, damage awards grew in Cook County (Chicago city within this county) by over 247%. Chicago physicians saw their insurance premiums rise 10-12% per year. Many specialists left the state or ceased to practice.

The tort reform laws reversed the trend, malpractice lawsuits dropped 25% and doctors returned. According to the Congressional Budget office, which is supposed to be neutral, these reforms will save more than $54 billion in health care costs over the next 10 years.

Here's the problem in a nutshell - the judges just told the elected state politicians that they have no power over the judges. They cannot regulate them. HUH? Because Illinois Democrats included and passed a non-severability clause in the law (all-or-nothing) the entire tort reform law is now void. Oopsie.

This now also invalidates some very good and wise provisions, which should be considered as part of ALL tort reforms -
a) provisions to regulate insurance rates
b) provisions to encourage doctors to admit mistakes and make doctor's disciplinary records PUBLICLY AVAILABLE to patients.
c) reasonable limits to non-monetary awards

Here's a much bigger problem - Plaintiffs lawyers have launched constitutional challenges in dozens of states to overturn similar laws - cases are currently being heard or pending in TEXAS -OMG!, Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida, Maryland, and Georgia. Usually they argue about equal protection or lack of due process.

This exact reasoning of separation of powers has been rejected in Maryland, Utah, Alaska, (Thanks, Sarah!) Colorado and Nebraska. WSJ states that this reason usually gets lawyers laughed out of court. As it should.

Lessons learned -
1. Hire smarter legislators who know how to write laws and what a non-severability clause means (unless they planned it that way.)
2. Pay attention to your elected judge positions, they matter also.

My personal note - when I was injured in my car accident, I felt very unfairly treated by my insurance company. I had a very difficult time just trying to get reimbursed for legitimate medical, documented expenses, so I personally think Texas laws need to be modified in favor of the patient. I spoke with several attorneys and they told me that unless I died and my family suffered millions of dollars in damages, it was not worth suing anyone. Apparently , no lawyer gets out of bed these days for less than one million dollars and a cases involving brutal death..

These attorneys said that in Texas, many of their case knowledge is filled with patients who were injured and suffered tens of thousands of medical expense fees and even after settlement, did not have enough to pay their documented bills. Suing for pain and suffering was not even a thought anymore. Texas law goes a little too far, we stopped the lawyer lottery but went too far - so much so that the patients are bearing the burden, and the insurance companies are making the money. Tort reform in Texas means taking on the insurance special interests.

That is why we need laws which are well thought out, all reasonable potential outcomes debated in public, and voted on when there is a consensus.

TTFN!