Today's Nuze: January 06, 2005 

THE REAL PROBLEM HERE IS JURIES

Yesterday President Bush outlined his solutions for the problem of ever-increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums -- premiums that are getting so high that many doctors are altering their areas of practice or simply retiring.

Bush's plan has two essential features:

1.  All class action lawsuits should be tried in federal courts.

2.  There should be a $250,000 limit on awards for pain and suffering, or "non-economic" damages from medical malpractice.

Interestingly, Bush introduced his plan in Madison County, Illinois.  Madison County is now known as the class-action capital of the United States.  Since 1998 Madison County has seen a 5,200% increase in class action lawsuits.  

Democrats will naturally fight Bush on this every inch of the way.  The reason?  Trial lawyers.  Over 90% of all trial lawyer political donations go to Democrats.  Trial lawyers have been paying Democrats heavy protection money for decades.

I'm a lawyer.  I used to be a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association.  I've represented plaintiffs in medical malpractice suits.  I won.  I have some opinions in this area.  Perhaps they're worth listening to.

First ... let's address Bush's call for a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages.  This means that a jury could award the plaintiff enough money to cover all of the anticipated costs of future medical care and other necessary expenses to compensate the plaintiff for the costs incurred as a result of the malpractice for the remainder of the patient's life.  Fine.  So far so good.  Beyond that, Bush wants to limit any additional awards to just $250,000.

Consider this case.  About 15 or so years ago two newborn males were horribly disfigured at an Atlanta hospital.  A doctor made a horrible mistake during the circumcision process and literally burned the penises off of these two males.  The parents of at least one of these babies took the doctor's advice and agreed to a sex-change operation.  Since there was no longer a penis, the doctors just surgically changed this poor child to a female.  (I lost tract of what happened to the other baby.)  Now ... let's consider a medical practice action here.  The question of negligence was not an issue.  The doctor was clearly negligent .. open-and-shut case.  The question was how much to award.  Let's consider that award in light of Bush's reform proposals.  This child would be entitled to have the cost of the sex-change surgery and the cost of any future hormone replacement therapies covered.  The parents would presumably be compensated for the cost of all those male-oriented baby clothes they had bought.  

What else would the child get?  $250,000, that's what.  Here we have a child, born male, who will never be able to father a child.  A child who will have a confused sexual identity for the rest of its life.  What is it worth to you to be able to have a child?  What is your sexual identity worth?  Hell ... let's cut to the chase.  What is your penis worth?  

At the time these babies were born their life expectancy was about 75 years.  If you take that $250,000 and stretch it out over that time you would come up with a grand total of about $275 a month. That's it.  That's what you get for having your penis burned off by a doctor and for never being able to have satisfactory sex let alone father a child.  Do you think $275 a month is enough?

So, Boortz.  Do you have a solution?

Unquestionably, there is a crisis with medical malpractice.  There are attorneys out there who file frivolous lawsuits knowing that there was no incident of medical malpractice.  They just want to file the suit to see if the insurance company will throw some money at them to make them go away.  They're rolling the dice.  And why not?  They know that the insurance company is going to spend possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting the lawsuit, maybe they'll just pay a hundred grand to make the plaintiff go away.

What are the insurance companies afraid of?  Juries.  They're afraid of juries.  The real problem with medical malpractice lawsuits is juries.  Juries have a warped and confused understanding of their role in the judicial process.  I've interviewed countless members of juries following lawsuits, and I can tell you what they're thinking.  To many jury members it only matters that the plaintiff suffered an injury.  It doesn't matter whether or not anyone actually caused that injury through negligence, but only that the plaintiff was injured.  Sooner or later during the jury deliberations someone is going to speak up and say "Well, so-and-so was injured, we ought to give them something.  After all, the insurance company will be paying for it."  Does it matter that the injury was the result of the defendant's negligence?  No.  It only matters that the injury occurred.  Write them a check!

Opponents of reform feed this attitude with their constant drumbeat of criticism of the insurance companies.  It's the greedy insurance companies who are running these doctors out of business.  This thought is carried into the jury room where you find jurors all-too ready to take some of that money back out of the insurance company accounts.  

The solution?  First, do a better job of educating juries.  Make them understand that a plaintiff isn't necessarily entitled to compensation just because they suffered an injury.  In the Ob-Gyn area, tell these juries that nobody is guaranteed a healthy baby.  Some babies are born with problems, deformities or injuries.  It's not necessarily the doctor's fault.  

Second ... punishment for bringing frivolous lawsuits.  Judges should be given far more leeway in determining whether or not a lawsuit is frivolous, and the tools they need to punish lawyers who bring them.  Some, perhaps most states have requirements that plaintiff's lawyers acquire affidavits from doctors and other experts stating that the target doctor didn't meet certain standards of care.  Strengthen this.  Perhaps there should be panels of citizens and jurists who get to pass on the merits of a lawsuit before it is ever filed.

Third ... loser pays.  If  you file a medical malpractice lawsuit, and if you lose, perhaps you should pay all or a healthy portion of the doctor's legal expenses.

Finally .. as for moving all class-action lawsuits to the federal courts?  Good idea.  Let's do it yesterday.  If you will look at the history of class-action lawsuits you will see that attorneys try to files these suits in areas where they can be reasonably assured of getting a not-too-bright jury.  Check out Madison County, Illinois.   Federal juries are generally smarter.  Let them have these suits.

BAD NEWS ... NOT A GOOD DAY

Well, this is too bad. The core group of nations that President Bush put together to deliver aid to the victims of the tsunami is being dissolved. All relief operations will now be taken over by the United Nations. What a mess ... what a pathetic cave-in from the Bush administration.  The initial coalition for tsunami relief is being dissolved.  It's all going to be turned over to the United Nations.  Now Kofi and Kompany will have billions of dollars to spend for tsunami relief.  

Now that he has successfully hijacked the relief operation, Kofi the Korrupt wants the cash right away. He is demanding that the nations who pledged money immediately hand over the $977 million to the UN.  The same UN that turned a $64 billion oil-for-food program into a cesspool of corruption, the same Kofi Annan who turned his head while his UN buddies, including his son, siphoned off untold millions of dollars intended to feed and medicate Iraqi women and children is now getting his hands on all of the American taxpayer money that has been pledged to the relief efforts.  The US aid that would have been distributed to the victims of the tsunamis under the name of the United States will now be distributed under the name of the United Nations.  These people will look to the UN to thank for their salvation, not the people of the United States.

You have to wonder just  much of that money will actually go to help the victims. Once the United States' $350 million is funneled through the corrupt bureaucracy of the U.N., how much will be left to help the starving children of Sri Lanka?  Certainly some aid will get through .... aid emblazoned with the UN logo ... and almost as certainly some of the money will end up in the pockets of corrupt UN toadies.  

This is why it is not a good idea for governments to engage in charity.  Over $350 million that was seized from the American people through confiscatory taxes will now be spent by an agency that is dedicated to the destruction of American sovereignty.  Nice going.

Given this unfortunate development, it is now more important than ever to channel your charitable contributions into private charities that do a better job than the U.N. does, like AmeriCares and the American Red Cross. 

Tsunami relief has now been successfully politicized.  The political war was a quick one, and the United States lost.  Victory goes to the corrupt and anti-American United Nations.  A sad day.

HERE COMES THE FRAUD

Officials have now confirmed 16 deaths of American citizens in the tsunamis.  Twenty other Americans have been identified as missing.  There have been 3000 inquiries about missing Americans from friends and relatives in the U.S.  Stand by .. here comes the fraud.  Who will be the first to be arrested for filing a false life insurance claim?

NOT LETTING GO IN OHIO

The disgraceful behavior of the Democratic left is about to be kicked up a notch. Today, a joint session of Congress will meet to certify the Electoral College votes and deliver a second term to President Bush. This is usually considered a formality. Not this time.

A number of Democratic House members are expected to contest the results. California Senator Barbara Boxer apparently wants in on it. All of this will delay the vote, but not change the outcome. Once they're back in session, the votes are there to easily certify the electoral votes. Of course they are...after all, George Bush was re-elected by an overwhelming landslide. 

Some members of the House are expected to contest Ohio's electoral votes, citing irregularities and the mythical "disenfranchisement." Never mind that George Bush won by over 100,000 votes. These things never matter to liberals, who don't consider an election legitimate unless they win it.  The new Democratic mantra.  "Keep counting until we win!"  

Oddly enough, The Poodle has refused to object to the certification. At least some liberals don't like being a sore loser. 

READING ASSIGNMENTS

While Muslims murder Muslims and Americans  in Iraq, the hated and evil Americans imperialists save Muslims in Indonesia.  And so it goes.  

On the very day after the tsunami disaster I told you right here that the anti-capitalistic environmental crowd out there would try to make find a way to blame this on global warming.  A nice Boortz "I told you so" here.  

You've heard me say before that the best way to get rid of an enemy is to make a friend out of them.  But how do you get rid of a friend?  Easy.  Loan them money.  As Suzanne Fields says in this column, "The taker hates a giver."

When it comes to insulting the United States, liberals lead the way. Ann Coulter says the left really doesn't like this country, as she busts loose in her usual way.

Peggy Noonan shares her thoughts on what she would do if she were a Democrat.

Is America really that stingy? Absolutely not. Larry Elder runs down the list of facts and figures about the generosity of the United States using information you're unlikely to read anywhere else.

Federal funding for stem cell research generated plenty of controversy, but Robert Novak says the next big issue to stir things up will be cloning. He takes a look at where the Congress stands on the practice.

The United States is being criticized for not doing enough to aid the tsunami victims, but Thomas Sowell asks the question: who delivers the aid while it piles up at airports? We do, of course, with military aid others aren't donating.

Despite the doom and gloom being reported in the mainstream media, 2004 was a pretty good year. Did you know the economy is booming, stocks are up and the deficit is down? Larry Kudlow tells it like it is.

In case you needed any proof that the media is biased, Brent Bozell invites you to check out the year-end issue of Newsweek. He describes it is as a mouthpiece for the left, and explains why.

The media is very disappointed with our response to the tsunami crisis, and isn't missing an opportunity to say it over and over. The Media Research Center reports on the networks' latest efforts at  Bush-bashing.

Staples office supply stores have caved into the left and pulled its advertising from Sinclair broadcasting television stations. That's too bad. However, it is their right to do so.  It's also my right to no longer shop at Staples.

This is a sad development....the United States has dropped out of the Heritage Foundation's top 10 freest economies. The main reason? Too much taxes and too much regulations.

Howard Dean is still trying to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and like all Republicans, Emmett Tyrell wishes him the best of luck in his pursuit. However, he points out that Dean really isn't the radical leftist everyone thinks he is.

Who named this work bench?

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