Area attorneys offer their views on malpractice suits, liability rates

End frivolous suits by sanctioning attorneys who file them, one attorney said.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Doctors who have been named in medical malpractice suits but are not found guilty of anything should not have their liability insurance rates raised, two area attorneys say.
Insurance companies should be able to sift out the doctors with good track records from those with bad track records and set their liability insurance rates accordingly, said Atty. Marty White of Warren.
Also, White said, in most cases, after obtaining medical records and getting an expert to determine whether a case is actionable, it is possible to determine who should be named and who need not be named in a malpractice suit.
"No responsible lawyer wants to use the 'shotgun' approach. It's just plain wrong," White said.
Suing doctors who are on the fringe of a case should be done only when the suit is very complex or there are time constraints, White said.
White and Youngstown Atty. Mike Harshman agree with local doctors who say it is unfair that physicians' liability rates are being driven up just because they are named in suits from which they are eventually dropped or not found guilty.
Effect of such lawsuits
Dr. Marc Saunders, president of the Mahoning County Medical Society, says frivolous lawsuits are driving up the cost of medical malpractice insurance and driving doctors out of this area.
Doctors took their case to the public with Wednesday's kick-off of an awareness campaign dubbed "Where Does It Hurt?," spearheaded by the Medical Societies of Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties.
However, doctors and lawyers don't agree on what a frivolous suit is, or what the prime forces are behind the escalating cost of liability insurance for physicians.
Harshman defines a frivolous suit as one that has no potential merit; one in which the attorney has not talked to a qualified expert who says there was a deviation from normal medical practice and it caused harm.
Dr. Saunders defines a frivolous suit as one in which doctors are named, causing their malpractice insurance premiums to go up, even if they are eventually dropped from the suit.
White said that he thinks the way to stop true frivolous suits is to sanction the attorneys who file them.
"I have tremendous respect and sympathy for good doctors, and it breaks my heart when a physician who has never been sued has his insurance rates raised from $18,000 to $80,000. There should be a better system," he said.
Punishes wrong ones
But, White said, a cap on jury awards beyond actual medical costs in medical malpractice cases is punishing the wrong population: people who have been severely damaged by blatant medical mistakes.
The cap will encourage, not discourage, more litigation. With a maximum $500,000 cap, insurance companies will go to trial on every case. There is no risk to the insurance companies, no incentive to settle, White said.
The public campaign was proposed by Dr. Larry Woods, chairman of internal medicine at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
"My whole purpose in this is to go to the community because I don't think the residents know the other side of frivolous lawsuits," Dr. Woods said.
The community has to make up its mind what it wants to do: Assume some of the responsibility in the area of frivolous lawsuits; or face less access to specialty care, such as baby deliveries and neurosurgery and vascular surgery, as more doctors leave the area, he said.
Attorney's view
Harshman does not think the cost of defending suits has caused the spike in insurance rates. Also, he said large awards are not inappropriate or unwarranted when someone is seriously impacted by a medical mistake and it is going to cost a lot of money to care for them and they can't continue their lives.
"Let's find out the truth before we start taking rights away from victims. I think the insurance industry needs some regulation and there should be some policing of the medical profession.
"I would think the good doctors would understand that it is the bad doctors who are pushing the rates up. Maybe they [the bad doctors] should not be practicing anymore."
alcorn@vindy.com