Our Take: Caps on noneconomic damages help limit the amount of megaverdicts that we’ve been seeing increase in regularity all over the country. Megaverdicts add an extra layer to how malpractice insurance companies and their underwriters determine how much a physician pays for malpractice insurance coverage. Megaverdicts typically are any verdicts that exceed $50 million […]

The Oregon Supreme Court last month invalidated statutory limits on noneconomic damages for personal injury claims. The high court ruled that the cap enacted by the legislature in 1987 violates the legal remedy clause of the Oregon Constitution. The decision affirmed an appeals court’s reversal of a trial court ruling on an award for a […]

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month announced a proposal for strengthening the oversight of physicians and other medical professionals to better protect patients as part of his State of the State agenda. Cuomo proposed a comprehensive set of reforms to ensure that the Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct has adequate and […]

Arguments in favor of and against New Mexico’s medical malpractice compensatory damage cap were made last month, and now the question as to whether it is constitutional rests in the hands of five justices on the state’s Supreme Court. The compensatory cap limits economic and noneconomic damages, but not medical costs or punitive damages, to […]

The Utah Supreme Court last month declared a portion of the state’s pre-litigation medical malpractice review panel process under the Utah Health Care Malpractice Act unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers doctrine. The Utah Legislature passed the Health Care Malpractice Act in 1976 to curb the perceived cost increases in malpractice insurance in […]

In March, the Trump Administration unveiled its Fiscal-Year 2020 budget proposal, outlining the President’s tax and spending priorities for the next decade. While the president’s budget proposal is simply a request with no binding authority on Congress, it is best understood as a detailed statement by the administration of its fiscal goals and policy preferences. […]

In June, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jose Rodriguez denied a defense motion to reduce a jury verdict for noneconomic damages from $500,000 to $350,000 because the defense offered to arbitrate the claim, further chipping away at Florida’s tort reform laws that cap noneconomic damages in medical professional liability actions. In 2014, the Florida Supreme Court […]

On June 27, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the state’s $750,000 cap on noneconomic medical liability damages is constitutional. “Today’s Court decision preserves Wisconsin’s balanced medical liability system that has been instrumental in attracting physicians to communities across Wisconsin, while providing assurance to injured patients that they will receive payment for the full amount […]

Hosted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Orlando, Fla., the 2018 PIAA Medical Liability Conference assembled the various members of the medical professional liability industry from May 16 – 18 for three days of educational sessions, networking and meetings. “You are here because the work we all do is critical to the practice of medicine,” […]