So, it’s over. Another legislative session. For the 15th time in 15 years, the Florida Legislature debated "tort reform" seeking to restrict or eliminate the rights of Floridians maimed or killed due to medical neglect. (I leave "tort reform" in quotes because it is less about reform and more about eliminating rights.) This year they did it again. This year they passed more "tort reform." Thanks in large part to a state representative named Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, the Florida legislature made it more difficult for patients injured due to medical neglect to bring claims or to succeed in claims for money damages.
For some, this is a good thing. Doctors, hospitals, and the liability insurance companies who insure them are obviously content. Those who believe that “greedy trial lawyers” and “runaway juries” are a threat to our economy, welfare, and health care system, are also content.
For years, big business, big insurance, and the health care industry have inundated us with the myth that the civil justice system is not trustworthy and/or that it is damaging our economy.
But the facts don’t jive with the “tort reform” message. As I have pointed out elsewhere in these pages, juries are not out of control and the civil justice system is causing little, if any, increased costs. In fact, the civil justice system is an essential aspect of a public policy seeking safety and excellence in medical care. See "For Safety's Sake: Doctors Expose Medical Malpractice Myths."
What is certain is that every time the legislature makes it more difficult to bring a case, the civil justice system grows less capable of dispensing justice, and less capable of protecting us or giving us safer medical care.
This year, the new law makes it more difficult to retain expert witnesses to testify about what went wrong. Ignoring the fact that medicine is interdisciplinary and interdependent, the Bill just passed now prohibits overlapping medical specialties from offering expert opinions about what went wrong in a case. Even if two physicians are trained to perform the exact same procedure the exact same way, and even where they work together, hand in glove, on the procedure or the patient’s condition, they cannot opine on the care rendered if their background or training is in different specialties. In a world where negligence and wrongdoing have no consequences, negligence and wrongdoing thrive.