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Commercials Playing Role In Voting For Medical Malpractice

October 4, 2005

Commercials are busy playing a role in influencing TV viewers who are gearing up to vote in nine weeks on the issue of medical malpractice. There are two competing initiatives on the ballot.

Doctors have been long presses with the issue that their insurance goes up every time a jury awards a multi-million dollar award to a plaintiff.

Doctors believe that trial lawyers are simply out of control.

An ob-gyn who decided to retire this year was paying $70,000 a year for malpractice insurance.

Kim Jones is one patient affected by medical malpractice. She is now in a vegetative state after her doctor prematurely removed her oxygen supply.

People are put into a position where they don't have many other options than to fight the medical malpractice.

Initiative 330 is a new proposal that would put a cap on 'non-economic' damages, which is the legal term for pain and suffering. The cap would be kept at $350,000 to $1 million, depending on the number of doctors at fault.

The initiative also puts a limit on the percentage that the attorneys can collect, 15 to 40 percent, depending on the size of the settlement.

Other terms are that if you have a claim you must file it within three years, and doctors could oblige you to sign an agreement to use arbitration before taking them to court.

Supporters of the initiative feel that the fight is against personal injury lawyer income, said members of the Washington state medical association. These lawyers are making huge profits from the cases they are fighting and they will fight further to prevent any diminution of the whole process.

But attorneys are asking how you could possibly put a cap on pain and suffering for someone like Kim Jones, who was left in a vegetative state after the doctor prematurely removed her oxygen supply.

Attorneys know that these kinds of cases are extremely expensive to bring to court.

If the cap only allows you $350,000 in possible recovery, many people could not file these major lawsuits, said one attorney.

From the lawyers' point of view, the problem is that doctors that are not ethical keep practicing. Their initiative, I-336, would make it mandatory for the state to revoke the licenses of doctors who earn three jury verdicts against them in 10 years.

The proposition would also outlaw secret settlements, make it mandatory for doctors to inform patients about their malpractice history, and require the insurance companies to conduct hearings before they could raise their rates more than 15 percent.

The two different solutions have many people behind them arguing their side.

Lawyers feel that they are the only enforcers of medical discipline because the state has done nothing to help the plight of the patient.

I-336, which was paid for exclusively by the personal injury lawyers, was put in motion to match up against 330, but doctors feel that it is simply an abuse of the initiative system.

Millions have already been spent on the ad campaigns for both the initiatives. In the end, voters may reject both of them, or pass both.