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Medical care in Georgia is slowly being strangled by the law. The American Medical Association has identified 12 states facing a medical liability crisis. Georgia is one of those states.
Georgia law allows a plaintiff to dismiss his case twice for any reason without prior notice. Let’s say the plaintiff’s side doesn’t like the jury or the judge assigned to the case; or perhaps the testimony is going badly. All the plaintiff has to do is dismiss the case and start over. This “redo” drives up the defendant’s and taxpayer’s cost. Defendants cannot use this option.
Georgia law allows a plaintiff to use anybody with “special knowledge in a particular trade or profession” as an expert witness. Expert witnesses don’t have to be a practicing physician or even qualified in the medical specialty of the doctor or hospital being sued.
Georgia law allows a defendant to be held accountable for 100 percent of the damages even though they may only be responsible for a portion of the liability. Instead of seeking proportional justice from multiple defendants, “joint and several” liability laws encourage plaintiffs to go after the deepest pockets. A 1993 study by the U.S. Congress said rising medical insurance premiums across the U.S. are directly related to the spread of these laws.
Speaking of insurance; malpractice insurance costs for doctors and hospitals across the U.S. have soared from $60 million in 1960 to more than $7 billion in 1990. Over 25 different insurance companies across the U.S. have stopped offering medical malpractice insurance. According to the Medical Association of Georgia, million dollar jury awards in Georgia have doubled since 1995.
More and more Georgia doctors are retiring early, moving to other states. or declining to perform high-risk procedures. Frivolous lawsuits drive up our taxes and require doctors to practice defensive medicine. This generates more tests, more procedures, more trips to the doctor, and increases our medical insurance.
Two changes will fix our legal woes without sacrificing justice for those that need it. Eliminate jury trials for civil cases and make the losing party pay the winner’s legal expenses. These common sense changes work in other countries and they will work in Georgia. It’s time to get unscrupulous lawyers and incompetent juries out of the legal jackpot mining business.
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