Diederich Healthcare has released the 2013 statistics for med mal payouts. Among some interesting statistics: Payouts were 3.4% lower than 2011 (continuing a downward trend since 2003) and 93% of the payouts were by settlement (rather than judgment at trial). Thanks to TortsProf for the link.
Meanwhile, on the same topic, over at The PopTort there is a comment on the "crisis" tort reformers often claim calls for reforming the judicial system. There is nothing new in this comment - it is well known the crises were caused by the insurance industry and that the reforms do little or nothing to fix them - but it doesn't hurt to refresh our memory from time to time.
As the PopTort reports Missouri has no cap on damages because the state supreme court declared them unconstitutional, but apparently the state Senate is discussing whether to reinstall them. See here. Why reinstall a measure whose main result will be to hurt the victims of medical malpractice? Because, as I have argued many times, the goal of medical malpractice reform has never been to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, but to minimize the filing of valid ones (in order to preserver profit margins)!
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