Washington Medical Malpractice Lawyers

A Down Payment on Comprehensive Liability Reform

SEATTLE,  By all accounts, our state legislators again will ignore an opportunity to pass a significant piece of liability reform. Initiative 330 (I-330) is a meaningful medical liability reform package that would bring stability to an industry in crisis while still ensuring the rights of injured patients.

The Liability Reform Coalition (LRC) supports I-330. Make no mistake; this is not just a health care industry issue, it's a business issue.

The liability system in Washington state is broken. Rising liability costs have put pressure on industries across the state, limiting businesses' ability to be competitive. For example, these escalating liability costs have driven up the cost of housing construction, forced charities to curtail services, and impacted the availability of high-risk medical practitioners, such as those doctors who deliver babies.

Individual taxpayers are directly affected by our out-of-control legal system. Under current law, it's not uncommon that the deep pockets of government end up footing most of the bill resulting from a lawsuit. Our state budget includes more than $170 million to pay claims and related defense costs such as attorney fees. That means a typical household in Washington state will pay a "litigation tax" of $120 for litigation costs against the state.

We, the taxpayers, are left holding the bag for frivolous lawsuits and runaway jury awards. The only clear winners are -- you guessed it -- trial lawyers!

The LRC views I-330 as a down payment on comprehensive liability reform for all of us. I-330 would curb the runaway jury awards that drive up the cost of litigation and force medical malpractice liability insurance rates ever higher. The curbs that I-330 imposes are reasonable: all economic damages are and should be fully recoverable, but the so-called non-economic damages, or those damage awards that are given for "pain and suffering" are capped at reasonable levels ranging from $350,000 to just over a million dollars. In addition, I-330 would limit the percentage that personal injury lawyers may take from jury awards or settlements, putting more in the pockets of the injured patient.

These revisions -- and the other parts of I-330 -- are sorely needed. Access to quality medical care is challenged by frivolous lawsuits brought by greedy personal injury lawyers. Outrageous jury awards have caused insurance premiums to rise for all doctors, even for those who have never been sued. The costs of medical malpractice insurance and the fear of being sued have compelled doctors to curtail their practices to less risky patient care, to practice defensive medicine, and even to shutter their practices. This means your doctor may be considering if it is worth the cost of practicing medicine in the state of Washington, or if he or she must curtail high-risk procedures such as maternity care or certain types of surgery.

The passage of I-330, on the November 8, 2005 ballot, will be a first step in achieving liability reform for other industries as well. This initiative in no way seeks to restrict the access of judicial recourse for legitimate claims; instead it's about restoring balance to our judicial system. Juries, in their zeal to compensate for "pain and suffering," have inflicted pain on everyone-every single one of us pays for this zeal.

Personal injury lawsuits are more about lining the pocketbooks of personal injury lawyers than justice for injured patients. To protect their gravy train, the trial lawyers have retaliated against the medical community's initiative with their own smoke-and-mirrors version of tort reform. Their initiative, Initiative 336 (I-336), is designed to protect their take of jury awards while increasing the cost of health care. The lawyers' initiative creates an unnecessary state-run insurance company. The lawyers' initiative is designed to extort earlier and more lucrative settlements from doctors, by stacking the deck so an innocent practitioner will settle rather than risking a trial. And, it will kill efforts to improve patient safety.

A majority of voters understand that personal injury lawsuits are hurting the economy of our state. They know that without imposing limits on non-economic damages, the price of health care will increase significantly, that the number of doctors in rural areas will decline, and that many pregnant women in Washington state will be unable to get proper care.

These voters also know that medical malpractice is more about money for personal injury lawyers than about justice for patients. It is critically important that we deliver the message about who is behind each of these initiatives. I-330 is backed by the health care professionals who care deeply that health care access not be limited due to the rising costs of the liability crisis. I-336, on the other hand, is backed solely by personal injury lawyers in this state who care first about their own greed. Personal injury trial lawyers do not care about your access to your physician.

Again, I-330, the health care access initiative proposed by Doctors for Sensible Lawsuit Reform, is not just a health care industry issue. It's a business issue. If we hope ever to have comprehensive liability reform in Washington state, it is critical that we do everything we can to pass I-330-and defeat I-336.

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