Archive: Tort Reform

Tort reform has been promoted as the silver bullet that will fix the legal system by those who have a vested interest in seeing lawsuits decrease and awards capped. In reality, tort reform is much more complicated since it represents an abridgment of some people’s legal rights. Here is some more information about tort reform […]

CNN reports in 2,000 words that a group of pediatric cardiologists in Florida is claiming that the state changed its policy, “putting thousands of children with heart defects at risk,” after Tenet Healthcare contributed $200,000 to Republicans in Florida. One Tenet hospital “had failed to live up to state quality standards for children’s heart surgery,” but […]

Reuters reports that a Federal judge has reduced a $500 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson “over allegedly defective metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants” to about $151 million. The judge “said he was compelled to reduce the verdict under a Texas state law limiting punitive damages according to a specific formula.” From the news release of the […]

The Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News reports, legislation sponsored by New Mexico state Rep. Terry McMillan, R-Las Cruces, aims to temporarily resolve an issue with medical malpractice lawsuits against Texas phyicians by New Mexico patients, as was the case for a woman who sued her Texas physician in her state because of how restrictive Texas is in protecting […]

The Washington Post reports from Winsted, CT on the American Museum of Tort Law, “the two-decade, nearly $3 million dream of consumer advocate and persistent presidential candidate Ralph Nader,” complete with “a cartoon exploding Pinto, cartoon cigarettes, cartoon asbestos, a cartoon depicting that historic moment in torts when a 190-degree cup of McDonald’s coffee burned Scalding Crusader […]

Well, Texas voters, you can’t say that the trial lawyers didn’t warn you this would happen. Once you let the tort reformers get a foot in the door they’re going to shove it wide open. Now a Houston appellate court has ruled that when a retirement home hires a valet parking service, and one of […]

The National Law Journal reports that the “chances that Tuesday’s elections would produce a split or Republican-controlled Congress inspired optimism among Washington’s top lobbyists, who see opportunities to negotiate tax, health care and budget policy issues.” Republicans, who “won control of the Senate and cemented their hold on Congress,” may “resuscitate fiscal legislation while trying […]

Michael Hiltzik in his Los Angeles Times (9/20, Hiltzik, 4M) “The Economy Hub” blog writes that the “tort reform law,” which is “usually billed as an answer to frivolous malpractice lawsuits” accounts for about 2.9% of healthcare spending, according to a new study done by Michael B. Rothberg of the Cleveland Clinic and published in […]

Tort reform made sense to lots of people at the time, Stephen DiLeo included—that is, until a doctor removed his son’s brain tumor. That was the headline and subhead of a recent article in The Houstonia Magazine. And the answer is YES — it’s far past time to reform “tort reform” in Texas. This was […]

In a more than 3,800-word piece, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the difficulty of pursuing medical malpractice lawsuits in Wisconsin, the result of state regulations and legal decisions which have caused the number of lawsuits to decline. According to the article, court records show that medical malpractice suits in the state have dropped “more than 50% […]