Florida's floodgates

Providence Journal: Florida voters have approved a bizarre measure aimed at weeding out bad doctors. It's a three-strikes-and-you're-out law that would revoke the license of any doctor who is hit with three malpractice judgments. That sounds reasonable, until you ponder what this law would really do: open the floodgates of lawsuits against doctors.
Consider the racket: For doctors who have lost a malpractice case -- and good ones do -- another adverse verdict could threaten their careers. So all lawyers would have to do is wave a medical-malpractice suit and the physician's insurer would start talking sums of money.Doctors wanting to avoid a "strike" would try to make a quick settlement.
High-risk reality
Bear in mind that doctors in the high-risk specialties, such as obstetrics and neurosurgery, can get sued whenever an outcome is bad -- and regardless of whether they were at fault.
The facts of these cases are often open to debate, whatever the verdict. State medical boards are best qualified to determine whether a doctor's overall record merits loss of license. They, and not some gimmicky law, should be making these judgments.
Actually, Florida had three medical-malpractice questions on the ballot, all approved. While the three-strikes-and-you're-out amendment was lawyer-friendly, another one, limiting lawyers' fees, could be deemed anti-lawyer. It would lower lawyer fees on malpractice cases to 30 percent of the first $250,000 of the verdict, and 10 percent of the rest. Lawyers now collect up to 40 percent of the entire amount.
The third amendment, opposed by doctors and backed by lawyers, would open the records of "adverse" medical incidents to patients who were seeking care. Doctors worry that it would hurt patients by discouraging physicians from writing anything that could come back to haunt them.
All three amendments have been challenged in court.
Medical malpractice involves complicated medical and legal issues. They should be sorted out by state legislatures working with experts, not a public referendum.