Articles Posted in Tort Reform in Georgia

An editorial in today’s Macon Telegraph notes that some Republican legislators who supported the tort reform legislation last year now feel that they went too far. Some now want to roll back the virtual immunity from liability that was granted to emergency room doctors. Judges have held unconstitutional portions of the tort reform bill in…

In “The Constitutional Status of Tort Law: Due Process and the Right to a Law for the Redress of Wrongs,” published last month in Yale Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Professor John C.P. Goldberg wrote that a law for the redress of private wrongs forms part of the basic structure of our government. Although the Constitution…

The current issue of Atlanta Business Chronicle includes a article by Kelly B. Thrasher, M.D.,, an Atlanta internal medicine specialist, pointing out that tort reform legislation has produced windfall profits for the insurance industry rather than savings for the physicians who were exploited in the political drive to get the legislation passed. The Medical Association…

A coalition of lawyers who have sued tobacco companies says it is close to filing a class-action lawsuit against soft-drink makers for selling sugared sodas in schools. Leading the litigation effort is Richard A. Daynard, an associate dean at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, who is also president of the Tobacco Control Resource…

Georgia law requires an affidavit from a qualified expert in order to file a medical malpractice case, and has stringent requirements for qualifications of such experts. It is virtually impossible to get a qualified expert within the state, so lawyers handling such cases generally start with the assumption that they will have to go out…

This year the Georgia General Assembly adopted a $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. Noneconomic damages include physical and mental pain and suffering, permanent impairment, intangible value of life in a wrongful death case, etc. Today the Supreme Court of Wisconsin released a decision holding a similar Wisconsin statute unconstitutional, as there…

A thoughtful article in RedNova fairly explores the complexity of medical economics that the tort reform advocates in the legislature often overlooked. One quote from an Atlanta physician: “My problem with [Georgia’s tort reform] is doctors have been pitted against lawyers, when it’s really a case of insurance companies against patients. If anything, doctors should…

A new study by Dartmouth College researchers suggests that huge jury awards and financial settlements for injured patients have not caused the explosive increase in doctors’ insurance premiums. The researchers said a more likely explanation for the escalation is that malpractice insurance companies have raised doctors’ premiums to compensate for falling investment returns. See article.…

“A major new report released…by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) offers more evidence that the insurance industry is intentionally using faulty data to make claims that the tort system leads to increased economic costs. EPI, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, analyzed in detail the alleged cost estimates of the U.S. tort system…

The Interland Spring 2005 Business Barometer of Small Business Activities reveals a disconnect between the concerns of small business owners and the overheated rhetoric of tort reform lobbyists. The Interland survey found that 66 percent of small businesses “rarely or never” consider the cost of litigation when making decisions. Forty-five percent of the respondents were…