Decrease in Florida SNF lawsuits dismissed as "meaningless".

Because Florida long-term care providers have been the field's national poster children for enduring skyrocketing liability insurance costs and sometimes losing coverage altogether, you'd probably expect them to welcome news of a 17% decrease in facility lawsuits since the year 2000. Such is not the case.

The Tampa Tribune reported on a study by well-known plaintiff's attorneys showing that lawsuits against nursing homes dropped after the state legislature passed reforms in 2001, making suing nursing homes more difficult and capping punitive damages. But it also noted a spokesman for the Florida Health Care Association, Ed Towey, describing the results as "meaningless." Highlighting that the study only takes into account filed lawsuits, Towey said that the true measure of the 2001 law's effectiveness is the number of notices of intent to file lawsuits. Towey said that most nursing homes settle suits before they are filed and that "liability claims have not abated at all. The statistics up to November 2003 show that you're still seeing two to three liability claims per day."

Trial lawyers and advocates for the elderly quoted in the Tribune cited the data as evidence that the law is working, and that further protections--desired by the long-term care industry--are not needed.

The study, based on lawsuit data in 32 counties, was conducted by Wilkes & McHugh, PA, a Tampa-based law firm serving as plaintiff's attorneys in nursing home lawsuits in several states.