I know you work for a medical malpractice carrier so it’s no surprise to me that your solution to the problem is one that sets up a system that protects the Dr’s by creating a jury of his peers, rather than a jury of fellow citizens. Dr’s sitting in judgment of Dr’s? Give me a break! How would that be fair? Of course, you want Dr’s to whitewash the misconduct of other Dr’s but that is simply ridiculous. The medical profession has a HORRIBLE history of self-policing and in fact the medical profession has consistently gone of it’s way to silence any Dr or nurse brave enough to blow the whistle on medical misconduct. I am sure you are aware of the Texas case where 2 nurses are being criminally indicted because they had the guts to file a complaint about a bad Dr and the bad Dr retaliated by filing a criminal complaint against them for harassment. The Texas case is a public example of what goes on every day behind closed doors– Dr’s or nurses who speak up are drummed out of the medical profession.

As to your claim that only 30% of the recovery goes to the malpractice victim, you are dead wrong. In NY, because of the strength of the medical lobby in Albany, attorneys handling medical malpractice claims are NOT entitled to charge the standard 33% fee that they charge in every other type of case, but are stuck with a sliding fee scale that only permits a 10% fee on any recovery over $1.25M. How is it fair that if I sue a lawyer, a banker, an architect or an engineer, I can charge a 33% fee but if I sue an almighty Dr, I am regulated by state law to a much lower fee? Don’t get me wrong, I accept the law and I still handle these cases because I know first-hand just how important my work is to malpractice victims, but the fee issue is just one more way the deck is stacked against the victims.

Obviously, we strongly disagree with one another but I felt it necessary to respond to at least the two most glaring examples of your mis-analysis of how to fix the system.

Jim Reed
NY Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Upstate NY

. My career has been medmal since 1985.
Here is how we fix it: Change the forum to binding arbitration. The Doc gets a jury of his peers, the hollywood factor that amps up verdicts goes away, the injured party gets the money quickly, premiums come down, defensive medicine plummets, policies become affordable, the cost of healthcare drops, the courts get declogged, while the attorneys still make a nice living. I could go on !!
Caps and sliding scales are not the answer. There is too much money to be made by the noninjured. Meritorious claims should be compensated ,but I have settled too many claims where everybody makes alot of money other than the injured party. Eradication of med mal is a pipe dream. We can trim it some but the question is about a better way for taking care of the injured without financially crippling the system. – Jim OHare AIC AIS VP med mal claims PIC