Conservatives - what do you think about my solution to tort reform?

[anglesey34]

Medical Malpractice cases are getting out of hand. There should be a system in place for getting rid of frivolous lawsuits and excessive awards. I propose the following:

1. The plaintiff has an attorney - the doctor should get one too. And it should be provided by their insurance carrier.

2. The plaintiff should be required to have another DOCTOR certify that the defendant doctor committed malpractice.

3. There should be a mechanism for dismissing cases that have absolutely no merit.

4. There should be a panel of regular people - like you and me - who decide how much compensation an injured plaintiff is entitled to.

What do you think of my ideas?

[nickson]

1. Of course the doctor gets an attorney. And most of the time they will be covered under their malpractice insurance.

2. The plaintiff will pretty much never win unless they have a doctor testify on their behalf.

3. Judges do that.

4. Those regular people are called the jury. The plaintiff or the defendant can request to be tried by jury instead of just by the judge.

So basically, what you are proposing is already in place.

[eilis]

Your ideas are very good....What they are not is original. That is pretty much the way it already is....

[khalid]

Michael C is correct.

[jabarl]

I have a few issues:

Regarding item 1 - this is what already happens.

Item 2: this is what is happening and again is part of the problem. There are doctors who make a living as 'expert witnesses' in malpractice cases and they all know that their livelihood depends on making the determination that their customer wants to hear. Thus any doctor hired by the plaintiff will always find some sort of negligence - simply because if he does not - he will not get hired again.

I agree with item 3. However not only should the case be dismissed - the plaintiff must be responsible for the defendants legal costs as will.

And I feel that item 4 is another part of the problem. Instead of ordinary people awarding money - use the same disability rating and compensation system as the VA. (It is is good enough for our soldiers - certainly it is good enough for everybody else!) And 'punitive damages' are assessed as fines and paid to the government - not split between the plaintiff and the lawyer.)

In addition I would propose that a system be set up where doctors are randomly selected to do a job similar to a grand jury. Before a malpractice case can go to court it must be reviewed by a panel of randomly selected doctors who agree that there is evidence of malpractice.