Nc Doctors and Trial Lawyers Agree on a $1 Million Malpractice Damages Cap

In a show of good sense, North Carolina doctors and trial lawyers have  joined to support a bill that would place a $1 million dollar cap on some medical malpractice cases. The bill would limit monetary damages in medical negligence cases for parties who agree to enter into binding arbitration. Lawmakers are hopeful that the bill, supported by the North Carolina Medical Society and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, will mark a new era of cooperation in the state. 

We could have done that in Georgia but for the determination of some “tort reform” advocates to shove down our throats the most aggressive and poorly drafted legislation they could cobble together. As a former chair of the Tort & Insurance Practice Section of the State Bar, I tried to get the then-current leadership of that section to offer to mediate the drafting of a compromise bill prior to the 2005 session of the General Assembly.  However, without a lever and a fulcrum there was little I could do at that point but howl in impotent protest. Now the legislation that some legislators have admitted as “written with a crayon” is being picked apart section by section.

The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks.