Posted on 11/16/2002 8:37:49 AM PST by Isara
Pity the poor trial lawyers. They're people, too, said Bill McBride in his last debate with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
But Bush beat McBride 56% to 43% in the Nov. 5 election. And around the country, the trial lawyers' favorites lost in most close races.
Fans of tort reform say it's a trend. The rising cost of health care has made voters more receptive to their message blaming excessive malpractice awards.
That's helped win key elections. And fewer activist judges and more Republican lawmakers better the odds for tort reform, even if getting stalled bills out of the Senate is still a problem.
"There's no doubt the trial lawyers kind of took one in the teeth on Election Day. Our side won almost across the board," said Mike Hotra, legislative director for the American Tort Reform Association. "There is a sense, a real sense, that there's momentum going our way."
Naturally, the lawyer lobby isn't happy, but don't count it out.
"It's actually not as forbidding as it was in 1995, when the (Republican) majorities in the House and Senate were significantly larger than they were in January," said Carlton Carl, spokesman for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
"Not every Republican believes in taking away people's legal rights in an effort to help the insurance industry and the tobacco industry and the drug industry and the chemical industry and so on," Carl said. "The Republican leadership is certainly anti-consumer and pro-corporate America, so we expect to fight the same fights we've been fighting."
Lawyers' Big Losses
Concern for homeland security and the economy gave Republicans a slight edge on Election Day. That worked against ATLA, which depends heavily on Democrats.
Incumbents won most races, as usual. But in seven of the nine Senate races considered competitive, the ATLA-backed candidate lost.
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Mark Pryor in Arkansas were those only ATLA wins. Two ATLA-backed incumbents lost - Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., and Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga.
It was the same story in the House, where ATLA lost 13 of the 15 House races tagged as tossups by political analyst Charlie Cook. ATLA even lost the two races in which it backed GOP incumbents.
New York Republican Felix Grucci got $12,500 from ATLA, more than most Democrats. Eight-term Maryland incumbent Connie Morella got $3,500.
Both lost to Democratic challengers who got nothing from ATLA. A question is whether the winners will become ATLA assets.
In one tossup, ATLA plainly showed its preference for Democrats. It gave $1,000 to Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and $10,000 to Rep. David Phelps, D-Ill.
Shimkus and Phelps were both incumbents, forced to go head-to-head by redistricting. Shimkus won.
Tort reform wasn't an issue in most races. But it was in Florida, with its many retirees needing health care.
Doctors, nursing homes, insurance companies and medical groups gave $3 million to the GOP in Florida, and just $500,000 to Democrats. Trial lawyers gave more than $2.5 million to Democrats in the state, and less than $1 million to the GOP.
In the race for governor, the two sides got personal.
McBride was a rich lawyer backed by other rich lawyers, running for office for the first time. He opposed a cap on damage claims and backed a state-run insurance pool for high-risk doctors.
Gov. Jeb Bush backed a cap on jury awards for pain and suffering.
As governor, he signed a bill limiting liability for corporations. He also worked to replace activist judges with judges likely not to overturn legal reforms.
The Palm Beach Post reported McBride receiving large dollops of dough from friends at the Florida bar: $250,000 for TV ads from two lawyers who sued the tobacco industry, $200,000 from a fund-raiser hosted by another lawyer in the same suit.
Bush made an issue of it in their first debate.
"Mr. McBride's campaign, and the secret effort that funded a lot of his campaign . . . a lot of that effort has been funded by trial lawyers," he said.
McBride came back in their last debate complaining that Bush often "castigates" people as groups. "Trial lawyers are people," he said.
Florida voters did not applaud.
The biggest victories for tort reform came in races for state supreme courts.
Reform fans celebrated victories in eight key states, in which Republicans won 12 out of 13 court seats.
"The voters sent a clear message to the personal injury bar that they want a fair and balanced judiciary and will not support activist judges who undermine the rule of law by legislating from the bench," said Sherman Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association.
Control of the Senate was another big victory.
With Republicans in charge, President Bush's court picks stand a better chance of making it to the federal bench, where state reform laws are often overturned.
"Ninety-eight percent of the tort law in America is still made by judges," said Victor Schwartz of the law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. "Federal judges are supposed to follow state law, but very liberal federal judges create law anyway."
What About Reform?
Other reform measures will have a harder time. The slim GOP margin in the Senate makes it unlikely a major bill on medical malpractice or class-action reform will get out of Congress.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently sponsored an amendment to limit punitive damages and contingency fees charged by trial lawyers in malpractice cases. The Senate voted it down in July, 57 to 42.
"Any issue that's controversial needs 60 votes to pass the filibuster test," said Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals.
"There will be members on the Democratic side who are going to fight it, and there are a few Republican who probably will vote against medical liability, too," he said.
More and more good doctors are changing their career because they can't afford malpractice insurances.
www.tlcsurgeons.com
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Lasik Litigation Locate an attorney specializing in medical malpractice.
TLC Laser Centers Malpractice Foundation Includes the personal story of Ron Pasqualino.
alt.lasik-eye Uncensored newsgroup.
sci.med.vision Uncensored newsgroup.
Surgical Eyes Censored forum for patients' rights organization. The founder, Ron Link, has taken a pro-TLC stance after receiving financial contributions from TLC executives.
Ask Lasik Docs Censored forum where questions regarding lasik are answered by Dr. Bill Trattler. Dr. Trattler has testified as a plaintiff's expert witness in medical malpractice cases.
Chicago Laser Center This heavily censored pro-lasik forum is moderated by Dr. Gerald Horn, who is a medical director for LCA Vision--a major lasik chain.
Hansatome 101 A microkeratome which damaged a patient's eye.
Kirk's LASIK History Kirk Carver's lasik experience.
Dr. Michael Gordon Roger Bratt's lasik experience.
My LASIK Experience Mathew Reiser's lasikexperience.
Dr. Mitchell Friedlaender Roger Bratt's lasik experience.
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Lasik SOS Lasik patients with damaged vision who are seeking help.
LOSER PAYS...
Plus good conservative judges and well-informed juries.
Yes, but we need change across the board. Too many friggin' lawyers chasing bucks and inventing new areas of liability.
Amen.
There are unethical doctors who make high claims about their surgical prowess, for whom no negative information is available. For instance, their is a well-known high profile doctor in Los Angeles who has damaged a number of people, yet has never gone to trial in a malpractice lawsuit. He pays off victims immediately, as soon as a suit is filed. The payoffs never appear in any court documents because they are made directly to the plaintiffs, without the knowledge of the plaintiff's attorney. The attorney doesn't find out until court day comes, and the plaintiff fails to show for trial. This is only one example of how problems get covered up.
Limiting contingency fees is an assault on free enterprise. No government has the right to tell lawyers how much they can charge their clients.
I'm not sure that the service some tort lawyers provide to extort money out of rich individuals or companies (producers in the society) is considered to be a part of free enterprise.
To discourage this kind of practice, we can:
What else can we do?
In Southern Florida, most physicians have gone to self insurance. This is because insurance for surgeons is running IN EXCESS of $200,000 A YEAR. That is before a surgeon pays his own salary, his medical staff salary or anything else. Now you see why qualified surgeons are leaving practice, or limiting whom they practice with. Now the stupid lawyers are telling them that they cannot pick and choose on whom they opearate. This is called being between the devil and the deep blue sea.
The bottom line is this -- lawyers have ruined medicine. They are driving eminently qualified physicians straight out of practice by triffling law suits. When you get an insurance company who says we will not defend the MD, because it is cheaper and easier to settle, I think you have an incredible case that in fact trial lawyers are using courts to extort physicians, and that has got to stop. Otherwise, good luck in getting medical care in the future, and don't come crying to us physicians when you cannot get treatment. The lawyers would NOT tolerate such a gross incursion into their profession, and neither should we.
What is your source on this?
Talk about spin! At that time they had Clinton in the White House to veto any possible tort reform legislation. Not the same story now. These bloodsuckers are in trouble now and they know it.
From your lips to God's ears.
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