Possible tort reform in Virginia

The TortsProf Blog is reporting today that Virginia hospitals are supporting General Assembly legislation authorizing a disclosure/early offer pilot program in medical malpractice cases. The House bill "would authorize the state health commissioner to work with private health care facilities to implement a program that calls for full disclosure to patients when things go wrong and a 'pre-claim resolution process' to head off lawsuits." Go to VLW Blog for more on the story (although there isn't much). As I have said many times before, though, the devil is in the details. If done right, reform can be a good thing, but, quite frankly, I have not heard of any "pre-claim resolution process to head off lawsuits" that is not an attempt to make it more difficult for injured victims to get compensation that usually allow negligent or incompetent doctors to escape liability. So I guess we'll have to wait to see what the proposal really is. Thanks to Chris Robinette for the information.