Friday, January 5, 2018

Why hasn't Gov. Cuomo signed the bill adopting the "discovery rule" for the statute of limitations in certain medical malpractice claims?

The New York Personal Injury Law Blog has a good (and short) discussion of a bill waiting to be signed that would adopt the so-called discovery rule for certain medical malpractice cases.  Before we go any further, let me confess that I am surprised there is a need to pass a bill for this to begin with!  I would have thought that by now all states have adopted the discovery rule; but evidently, I am wrong.  And what is worse is that the bill does not proposed adopting the rule for all cases. 

As explained in the article, the law "mimics the law in 44 other states, extending the statute of limitations in certain medical malpractice cases [to] the time the discovery of malpractice was made, or could reasonably have been made, instead of when it occurred.  In the final hours dickering over the bill last June, it was watered down to apply only to cancer cases, leaving all other “failure to diagnose” cases, where the patient didn’t even know s/he was victimized, hanging out in the cold. But still, even in its watered down state, it is something for those that have not only been victimized by malpractice, but didn’t even find out until the time to bring suit had expired."

You should read the full article here.  Among other things, it discusses how the current state of medical insurance business does not explain the hesitation to sign the bill.

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