The Business of Law – Marketing and Business for Enterprising Attorneys

Please, please, please can we stop pretending that the only thing holding up healthcare reform is the fact that we haven’t all agreed to a system that caps medical malpractice awards.  But that unfortunately is just what Bob Beckel over at Real Clear Politics argues.   In fact, he calls it the “Dems Ace in the Hole”.

Let me let Bob have the floor for a minute.  In a nutshell, he argues that Dems don’t support caps on med mal awards, because the trial lawyers have traditionally supported democratic candidates (guilty as charged Bob) and that Dems are afraid that the trial lawyers will abandon the party if they don’t hold the line on caps.

Moreover, Bob seems to imply that the only reason lawyers oppose caps is because huge portions of the punitive damage awards go to the lawyers, and the victimes are compensated with “pitifully” small payments.

Finally, Bob theorizes that if the Dems cave on med mal caps, it will force the Republicans (who are behaving so reasonably right now) to accept other aspects of the healthcare plan that they don’t currently support.

Now let me offer my own two cents…

First, trial lawyers have traditionally supported candidates who stand up for the little guy, the victim, the underrepresented, the poor, the disenfranchised.  They do so because these are the people that they represent, that they work with every day.  Now it’s true that more often than not, those candidates happen to be Democrats, but its’ not always the case.

Plus, Bob ignores the fact that organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have spent tens of millions on public education campaigns aimed at convincing Joe Six-Pack that reforming the legal system matters, and not so coincidentally, they also happen to be huge donors to Republicans.

The bottom line is, that med mal caps is not the linchpin to healthcare reform.  Punitive jury awards penalize companies for negligent behavior in the only way we can, in the pocketbook.  When you hit these companies where it hurts—on their balance sheets—they may just think twice about behaving so negligently in the future, and that might…just might…prevent someone from getting hurt.

Personal injury claims are the safety net of the system, when laws and regulations, professional rules and criminal sanctions let you down, and you get hurt as a result of a doctor’s malpractice or because a company was negligent or knowingly sold a dangerous drug, you can’t make the harm go away, but through punitive damages, your lawsuit could make sure that it doesn’t happen to someone else.

That my friends is worth preserving, regardless of partisan politics, or the current health care debate.

Agree?  Disagree? Let me know what you think.