Straight talk about doctors.

Lawyer jokes and uninformed statements bashing the civil justice system have dogged plaintiff attorneys through many a golf game, PTA meeting, or dinner party. When a myth about trial lawyers rears its head, you need to respond with the facts.

Q: Why are you trying to put doctors out of business? What do you have against doctors?

A: Lawyers aren't against doctors at all. We are on the side of doctors and their patients.

Today our medical system is run by the insurance industry instead of medical professionals. Insurance companies tell patients what doctors they can see and what treatments they can receive, regardless of medical need. Insurers tell doctors how to practice medicine.

And the insurers have been jacking up prices for patients and doctors alike. Some doctors have seen their malpractice insurance premiums double or triple. Insurers are trying to convince doctors that malpractice lawsuits, filed by innocent victims of medical negligence, are the reason for the rate hikes. They want to put caps on noneconomic damages; they say that will help.

But that's not what the facts show. According to data insurers must file with state insurance commissioners, they have doubled their rates, while payouts have increased only 8 percent. The industry has raised rates when it knew its costs were declining. As a result, insurers now have record profits and a record surplus.

Under oath, when they could be prosecuted for not telling the truth, insurance industry executives testify that damages caps will not lower rates. In states with caps, average rates are a little higher than in states without caps.

To help the doctors, you have to do something that will lower insurance rates. It's clear that caps are not the answer: Better regulation of the insurance industry has worked in the few places where it's been tried.

Requiring the industry to open its books and justify rate changes will end rate-gouging. Making insurers compete fairly, like every other business in the country, will help, too. Right now, insurance companies do not have to follow the antitrust laws that keep prices competitive in every other industry. Insurers can and do conspire to fix prices at everyone else's expense.

Fix that, and doctors and patients will be better off.