DOCTORS NOT ONLY ONES IN NEED OF TORT REFORM.

Byline: David J. Ozeran LOCAL VIEW

MANY states are facing a medical malpractice crisis, with physicians protesting rising malpractice premiums. Physicians in several states, including Mississippi, Florida and West Virginia, have walked off the job for periods of time in response to what they perceive as unfair and out-of-control insurance costs. In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said he wants to reform medical liability laws.

Rising malpractice premiums are attributed to larger jury verdicts in favor of injured plaintiffs. Insurance companies pay the jury awards on behalf of the doctors they insure and pass along the cost to the rest of the medical community in the form of higher malpractice premiums. Physicians who have never even been sued are being forced to pay substantially higher premiums in order to cover the costs incurred by the insurance companies on their less competent or less fortunate colleagues.

In California, we faced a medical malpractice crisis almost 30 years ago. Higher jury verdicts were forcing California physicians to pay onerous malpractice premiums. Beginning in 1975, the Legislature passed a number of statutes intended to limit what was perceived as runaway jury verdicts. Now, almost three decades later, other states are beginning to follow California's lead.

Two provisions passed in California in 1975 stand out as being the most significant in limiting jury verdicts in malpractice cases. First, plaintiffs are limited to $250,000 for pain and suffering. Unlike other types of personal injury cases, where recovery for pain and suffering is essentially left up to the whim of the jury, this limitation in medical malpractice cases saves insurance companies - and the physicians paying their premiums - millions of dollars in cases involving catastrophic injury.

The second major revision in California malpractice cases involves a plaintiff's economic damages, which usually consist of lost earnings and medical expenses. For those who are insured, medical insurance pays for most of the medical expenses incurred by an injured plaintiff, and disability insurance can significantly offset lost earnings. In most personal injury cases, the jury is not informed of the fact that a plaintiff is insured, resulting in the jury awarding the plaintiff damages for medical expenses and lost earnings even though those costs have already been paid for by insurance. In medical malpractice cases, the jury is told the extent to which the plaintiff's expenses have been paid for by insurance, resulting in jury verdicts that do not include awards for such expenses.

Other revisions to California malpractice law include limits on the contingency fee that can be recovered by a plaintiff's attorney, restrictions on a plaintiff's ability to assert a claim for punitive damages against a physician, and the parties being given the option to have economic damages paid in installments over the life of the plaintiff rather than in a lump sum.

These revisions to malpractice law have been a tremendous success, and California physicians have not faced the runaway rise in premiums that physicians in many other states have recently experienced.

The question, however, is why do physicians get this special treatment while the rest of us do not? If tort reform works to keep malpractice premiums down, then it will work in other personal injury cases and hold down premiums on our automobile and homeowners policies. Lower jury verdicts would save businesses money, and those savings would be passed down to the consumer.

Excessive jury verdicts are no more just than inadequate verdicts. Limitations aimed at restricting excessive verdicts would save us all money and would be good for the economy. Physicians should not be the only ones who benefit from tort reform. If tort reform is good for physicians, it would be good for the rest of us. It is time for California to lead the nation again by broadening tort reform to include all personal injury lawsuits and not just those aimed at physicians.