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To: griswold3
This truism will probably not resonate here to a group predisposed to believe the myth promulgated by the insurance industry but here is the truth; like it or not. Lawyers and law suits do not have any measurable effect on the insurance premiums chosen to be charged by insurance companies. Doctors are not driven from any place because of what lawyers do. Both of those declaratory statements describe mythical devices created and disseminated to cause precisely the furor at evidence on this site.

Insurance companies have learned the fine art of laying off their mortgage losses, poor corporate management performances and generally finding a rational sounding, but false ploy to raise rates. The crisis is a self-catalytic device that is roughly analogous to the old party game of telephone where each person whispers a given tale in the next person's ear only to have it emerge at the end of the line divorced from the beginning reality.

It has obviously been effective and has exceeded the desired propaganda success that even Herr What's-his-Name had back in the 30s and 40s in you know where on another subject. So, knowing that there is no dissuasion of folks here who dearly love to hate the legal profession (until they need a lawyer to save their arse or protect their rights), I'll simply leave it at that if only to get the truth into the rancid air of insurance industry deceit.

6 posted on 06/21/2007 1:56:42 PM PDT by middie
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To: middie
I'm with you 100%. Insurers raise the cost of litigation so high that any decent lawyer won't touch a case that is marginal. What will happen is that the government will end up paying the burden that should be borne by the one causing the harm. It's hardly a conservative principle to encourage shifting more responsibility to the government.

this is the first statement from Fred that has disappointed me.

10 posted on 06/21/2007 2:10:08 PM PDT by jdub
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To: middie
This truism will probably not resonate here to a group predisposed to believe the myth promulgated by the insurance industry but here is the truth; like it or not. Lawyers and law suits do not have any measurable effect on the insurance premiums chosen to be charged by insurance companies. Doctors are not driven from any place because of what lawyers do. Both of those declaratory statements describe mythical devices created and disseminated to cause precisely the furor at evidence on this site.

LOL

I know more then a few doctors who not only would disagree, but several who have moved because of lawsuits and of their rising insurance rates.

Of course, my opinion is only formed from first hand evidence.

12 posted on 06/21/2007 2:11:18 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: middie

You are full of it and must be a lawyer. The fact is that states with tort reform/malpractice caps (i.e. Indiana, Texas) have much lower malpractice rates than say states like NY and MA (liberal havens). Get off this site...


15 posted on 06/21/2007 2:14:27 PM PDT by TortReformer
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To: middie
I think it a chicken and the egg thing, but both sides are to blame. Lawyers seeking unrealistic but achievable settlements due to really bad juries (I am in Mississippi, were are home to this) combined with the over reaction and greed of the insurance.

They have been abusers on both sides.

16 posted on 06/21/2007 2:16:50 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (Don't worry hippie, we'll defend you too. Now fetch my Cafe Mocha will you....)
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To: middie

Not only do lawsuits have the effect of driving insurance rates up and physicians out of business, but there is a much more pervasive and expensive side effect. Numerous unecessary and expensive tests and therapies are done every day to prevent a future lawsuit. Defensive medicine is expensive in both time and dollars, and does nothing to improve patient care.

The lawyers and litiginous society we live in is hurting your medical care as well as I am sure many other industries.


34 posted on 06/21/2007 4:24:43 PM PDT by Mom MD (The scorn of fools is music to the ears of the wise)
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To: middie; jdub

Fred’s whole point is that different states can try different remedies. He cited what happened in Texas. Other states can try what they think is right.


37 posted on 06/21/2007 4:49:12 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: middie

“Lawyers and law suits do not have any measurable effect on the insurance premiums chosen to be charged by insurance companies”

So, are you saying Lawyers and lawsuits are not brought against doctors and hospitals?

Are you saying that Doctors can go without malpractice insurance, or can cut back their coverage limits at no risk?

Fact is, Lawyers paychecks come from insurance companies. Insurance companies are not going to insure for free. Lawyers are going to sue people, no matter what....and the more they sue the more revenue they generate.

No, Red Herring. Laywers are saying “they raised it too much, we’re not suing them that much”.

If the market for high insurance rates was so good, why in blazes did so many insurance companies pull out of Texas? did they have too much money?

No your argument is not holding water.


38 posted on 06/21/2007 4:58:43 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: middie
there is no dissuasion of folks here who dearly love to hate the legal profession (until they need a lawyer to save their arse or protect their rights),

from someone who has been tangled up with that crowd of scum sucking swill for the last two years, I can tell you categorically we would not "need lawyers to save our asses or protect our rights" if there weren't so many of the soulless thieving lying shills out there in the first place seeking to ingratiate themselves by any means possible.

I defended myself pro se in federal court in a civil suit and won. I sent the plaintiff's lead attorney a coffee table book for Christmas ... "Overcoming Parasites Naturally." If we could figure out how to get the trial lawyers into the WTC buildings on 9/11, I would hand Mohammed Atta the keys to the plane myself, and sleep like a baby afterward.

40 posted on 06/21/2007 5:10:16 PM PDT by DreamsofPolycarp (Americans used to roar like lions for liberty. Now they bleat like sheep for security)
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To: middie

Sorry, no sale. With a health care industry costing 1.5 trillion/year, if 20% of that driven by legal costs, not just John Edwards ambulance chasing, but defensive medicine. Extra tests thrown in to protect against the John Edwards in this world, you are looking at “only” hundreds of billions of dollars per year. People like Edwards ARE the problem. 50 million dollars in a bogus settlement that was a complete LIE. Everyone is paying for his mansion whether we want to or not.


42 posted on 06/21/2007 6:54:46 PM PDT by boop (Now Greg, you know I don't like that WORD!)
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To: middie
Doctors are not driven from any place because of what lawyers do.

A completely false statement. As a physician, malpractice was first and foremost on my mind when picking which of the 50 to practice in. There are states (Florida, W. Va, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts) that I wouldn't even consider the situation is so bad there.
49 posted on 06/21/2007 10:23:47 PM PDT by Old_Mil (Duncan Hunter in 2008! A Veteran, A Patriot, A Reagan Republican... http://www.gohunter08.com/)
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