Governor Highlights Success of 2005 Lawsuit Reform Initiative
St Louis Missouri News (stlouismo.com) -- Gov. Matt Blunt today highlighted the success of lawsuit reform legislation he fought to pass and signed in 2005 to address the medical care crisis brewing across the state before he was elected governor. The lawsuit reform legislation the governor championed and secured has significantly improved Missourians’ access to health care as well as the state’s business climate.
“The lawsuit reform we enacted in 2005 brought common sense and balance back to Missouri’s laws and improved access to health care for Missouri families,” Governor Matt Blunt said. “The significant and comprehensive reforms we enacted have leveled the playing field in Missouri courtrooms so that doctors and small business owners can go about creating jobs and opportunity without the paralyzing worry about the effects of a frivolous lawsuit or runaway personal injury award.”
Governor Matt Blunt noted that from 2005 to 2006, total claims against Missouri doctors dropped 61 percent. General surgeons, emergency room doctors, and OB-GYNs have all seen claims drop by greater than 70 percent since the governor signed the lawsuit reform.
Claim settlement costs have declined as well. From 2005 to 2006, the average settlement cost fell nearly 14 percent. The bottom-line is Missouri doctors, and the hospitals in which they work, now have more resources available to serve Missourians, resources that might otherwise have been exhausted on unnecessary insurance costs and extortionate payouts to personal injury lawyers. Now that money is freed to invest in health care, hire new doctors, and buy new equipment.
Governor Matt Blunt’s success enacting meaningful lawsuit reform is also, as anticipated, having a positive impact on Missouri’s legal climate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s rating indicates Missouri is now moving in the right direction on best legal climates in the country, as the state moved from the 41st position in 2004 to the 34th position in 2007. Businesses examine these ratings when they are considering relocations and expansions.
Before the passage of comprehensive lawsuit reform, health care providers in Missouri were being hard hit by frivolous lawsuits and outrageous awards while personal injury lawyers were chasing doctors out of the state at the expense of patients in need of care. The legislation the governor signed created more equitable joint and several liability, restrictions on venue shopping and limits on punitive and non-economic damages.
Under the new law, joint and several liability applies only to defendants 51 percent or more at fault, in all cases. Joint and several liability is a theory of recovery that permits a plaintiff to recover damages from multiple defendants collectively, or from each defendant individually. Before the improvement a defendant who was just 1 percent liable could be forced to pay almost the entire settlement. In the area of venue shopping, the new Missouri law provides that where the plaintiff was injured in Missouri, actions may only be brought in the county where the action occurred or in the county where the plaintiff was injured.
The legislation also limits an award for punitive damages to the greater of $500,000 or five times the net amount of the judgment awarded to the plaintiff against the defendant. The limits are designed to stem the growth in both the frequency and size of punitive damage awards. The law limits an award for non-economic damages in medical liability cases to $350,000, irrespective of the number of defendants and there is no inflation adjustment on the cap. All economic damages are covered under the new law. Caps in the other states with limits range from $250,000 to $875,000.
Governor Matt Blunt praised the great success of lawsuit reform in Missouri but warned we must remain vigilant.
The governor noted that in 1995 Wisconsin placed caps on non-economic damages in medical cases but in 2005 unelected judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared the caps unconstitutional in medical cases. In Illinois judges in Cook County declared damage caps in medical malpractice cases unconstitutional. Governor Matt Blunt pointed to examples in Wisconsin and Illinois as evidence that Missourians should continue to support legislative and executive leaders who understand that a Missouri courtroom should not be a place where personal injury lawyers force good doctors and businesses to leave the state.