Laws that Shape Malpractice Lawsuits Today

Most people have heard the legal term “statute of limitations,” especially in regard to high-profile criminal cases. The term refers to laws that limit the amount of time civil or criminal penalties may be applied to a case. One example comes from the 2008 financial meltdown on Wall Street. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the five-year statute of limitations prevented the Securities and Exchange Commission from filing charges against several financial firms suspected of fraud and other crimes.

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The statue of limitations also applies to medical malpractice claims. Patients can lose their right to bring a lawsuit if they do not file within a certain time period, and the time period differs from state to state. However, virtually all states allow longer limitation periods if malpractice causes permanent disability, foreign objects are left in the body, or fraudulent concealment prevents earlier detection of a problem.

Other laws shaping medical malpractice lawsuits attempt to limit liability and impose “caps” on recoverable monetary damages. Some states, including California and Alaska, have long limited noneconomic damages to $250,000. In recent years other states have enacted damage caps at higher levels, from $500,000 to $750,000. Advocates of these laws argue that noneconomic damages are arbitrary and unpredictable and complicate the settlement process.

One of the most common changes coming from the malpractice law reform movement concerns statements made by healthcare professionals in which they apologize to a patient for treatment rendered. Even if a physician expresses sympathy or concern, or apologizes, it is not regarded as an admission of fault or evidence of malpractice.

A 2011 article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that roughly 1 in 14 U.S. doctors face a malpractice suit every year. While many states have passed laws to limit malpractice claims, attempts to pass reforms that could affect malpractice insurance favorably, for doctors, at the federal level have been unsuccessful.

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