Case challenging the constitutionality of the non economic damages in Mississippi has settled

Last week, the Mississippi Supreme Court was supposed to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the state's non-economic damages cap. Instead the parties informed the Court that they have settled the case. The TortsProf blog has the story.

LA Times: "New study shows that the savings from 'tort reform' are mythical"

Yet another study shows what we already knew:  medical malpractice tort reform has little to do with health costs.  The LA Times explains in this story.

Anyone paying attention to this topic knows study after study shows the same thing (go to the medical malpractice or the tort reform sections of this blog and scroll down for stories on this), but tort reformers keep making the same unsupported tired arguments over and over again.  Most recently, this has been the gist of the campaign in California against a ballot initiative to raise the cap on compensation for med mal cases.  As I said in my original post on that subject, it is ironic that the slogan of the campaign is "check the facts" when it does not provide any to support its allegations.

Among other things, the new study suggests that "[a]ny "tort reform" stringent enough to make [the costs of so-called defensive medicine] go away would likely create other costs, such as a rise in medical mistakes generated by the elimination of the oversight exercised by the court system" and then concludes that "[s]ince it doesn't appear that "tort reform" would have any effect on this spending, there seems little reason to pursue it as a means to dramatically reduce health care spending in the United States."

These conclusions are also supported by the new edition of the book Medical Malpractice by the Numbers that I wrote about here and here.


h/t TortsProf Blog

Short documentary on the history of auto safety regulation and litigation

Courtesy of the Retro Report, here is a 15 minute documentary on the history of the fight for auto safety and some of the issues it has raised over the years.  Towards the end, it also opens the door to future issues that may arise out of modern technology and the promise of cars that can drive themselves.  If, for some reason, you can't see the video below, you can watch it here.
 

GM recalls more than 220,000 more cars

GM's nightmares continue with the announcement of a recall of more than 220,000 cars, this time for a parking brake defect.  The New York Times has the story here.

New York Times article on medical care costs

Yesterday I posted a link to the new edition of Medical Malpractice by the Numbers which has a lot of information on medical malpractice, tort reform and medical insurance costs and practices.  Today, the New York Times has a long article on another aspect of medical practice that contributes to the rising costs of medical care but is rarely discussed:  hidden fees.  Check out the article here.

Number of deaths associated with GM cars' defect continues to rise; GM CEO says it is no surprise

As you probably know by now, GM initially admitted to knowing of 13 deaths related to the faulty ignition switch in many of its cars.  At some point, that number rose to 16, and more recently it was reported that the GM compensation fund has already paid compensation for 19 death claims.  At least 125 death claims have been filed, according to AboutLawsuits.   GM's CEO recently admitted it is no surprise the number is higher than initially expected and that it is likely the number will continue to rise.

Take a quiz on medical malpractice

In my previous post, just a few minutes ago, I provided a link to a recent book on medical malpractice.  You can use the book to study for the PopTort's most recent medical malpractice quiz which is now available here (or you can take the quiz and then go to the book to find the facts you need to support the answers....)

New edition of the Medical Malpractice by the Numbers book now available

Two years ago, I posted a link to a report by the Center for Justice and Democracy on medical malpractice called Medical Malpractice by the Numbers.  It was a great resource of information and now there is a new expanded edition available here.  Or you can downloaded directly to your computer as a pdf file by going here.

In this book you will find a great amount of information on medical malpractice, insurance, litigation,  and tort reform that debunks the typical arguments advanced by tort reformers and the medical associations and insurance industry lobbyists.  Here are some highlights:

* Medical malpractice insurance companies are making twice the profit of the entire property/casualty insurance industry. In fact, the med mal insurance industry has had seven years of underwriting profit - something completely unheard of in the property/casualty sector. (Page 53.)

* After Texas enacted severe limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, including "caps" on damages, rates of preventable errors rose, "consistent with hospitals gradually relaxing (or doing less to reinforce) patient safety standards." (Page 83.)

* Medical malpractice premiums are not rising; other factors are contributing to the plight of physicians, specifically "health insurers that clamp down on the size of physician fees and deny payment for services that they deem unnecessary." (Page 56.)

* When asked their main reason for leaving New York state, newly trained physicians cited the "Cost of Malpractice Insurance" practically dead last on a list of many factors, the most important of which was "Proximity to Family." Even the general category "Other" outranked "Cost of Malpractice Insurance." Moreover, New York's liability laws were not even mentioned as a factor. (Page 52.)

The TortsProf blog has more highlights.

The death toll from General Motors’ faulty ignition switch is rising

A new article in the NY Times about death claims related to defective GM cars is available here.

Missouri Supreme Court holds punitive damages cap is unconstitutional

This week, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision striking down that state’s $500,000 punitive damages cap as it applies to any common law claim.  Here is a comment praising the decision and here is one criticizing it.  The case is called Lewellen v. Franklin.