By Lisa Girion
Times Staff Writer
The 1975 law caps at $250,000 the amount a patient can recover for noneconomic
damages, such as pain and suffering, distress and disfigurement. There are no
caps on economic damages, such as lost wages and medical expenses.
The Rand Corp. study stopped short of assessing the effect on malpractice
insurance premiums. But proponents of a bill in Congress that would institute a
national cap pointed out that premiums in
In its study of 257 jury awards in
• In 45% of the cases, judges had to cut the pain and suffering damage
awards by juries — who are not told about the cap — to conform with the
$250,000 limit. The typical reduction was $366,000.
• Patients with the severest injuries, such as brain damage or
paralysis, typically had their awards reduced by more than $1 million each.
• Infants' malpractice damage awards were cut 71% of the time, often by
$2.5 million or more.
The study said the law's effect was most striking in cases in which patients'
injuries led to modest financial hardships but whose quality of life was greatly
diminished.
In one case cited in the study, a jury awarded $78,000 for economic losses and
$1.5 million for pain and suffering to a 42-year-old woman who underwent an
unnecessary mastec
The cap has come at a high price for many, said Bruce G. Fagel, a physician and
malpractice lawyer.
"The limitation of noneconomic damages has the greatest impact on
wrongful-death cases," Fagel said. "In a perverse sense, it is far
cheaper for a doctor to kill a patient than to merely injure them."
One of the chief goals of
The
One insurance trade group insisted that the law had been instrumental in keeping
malpractice premiums relatively stable. Malpractice rates in
In the same period, the cost of living has increased 248%.
"It's a dramatic difference that ultimately helps save the public
money," said Candysse Miller, executive director of the trade group.
"If you keep the cost of insurance for doctors down, it's going to help
keep the pool of doctors in
President Bush has cited the
Lawyers for patients said the
"It's clear those who are most catastrophically injured pay the biggest
price," said Robert Peck, president of the Center for Constitutional
Litigation, a Washington law firm whose clients include the Assn. of Trial
Lawyers of America.
"The study demonstrates that the vast majority of medical malpractice
victims do not get noneconomic damages above $250,000," he said. "But
if you do, you are the most severely injured. It shows the irrationality of that
kind of cap."
One case examined by the study involved a 22-month-old who was left in a
vegetative state when medical personnel failed to detect an incorrectly placed
breathing tube. The jury's $8.9-million award for intangible losses was reduced
to $250,000.
That case showed that the law works, said Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive of the
California Medical Assn.
"The report doesn't point out that thousands of very sick babies are born
in very dangerous deliveries that are malpractice risks," he said.
"Keeping malpractice rates down and making doctors available to take care
of these people" is the law's achievement.
The malpractice law also caps attorneys' fees. Lawyers are paid on a sliding
scale, and the
As a result, lawyers said, they can't afford to bring a lot of worthy cases, a
contention the medical association disputed.
The study didn't examine the eight out of 10 cases that are won by defendants,
focusing just on what happened to awards when plaintiffs were victorious.
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times