Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Welfare for Lawyers

New Hampshire has a medical malpractice reduction law which requires malpractice cases to be presented to a state malpractice board BEFORE going to court. The board reviews the case and issues an opinion (doctor is innocent/doctor is guilty). Lawyers are free to sue no matter what the board opinion is. However the board's opinion will be presented to the jury at trial. This board has been in operation since 2005, and in that time only one half the cases presented to the board actually went on to trial. Our own Senator John Gallus supported this law back in 2005.
Apparently the board opinion carries great weight with juries. Malpractice lawyers complain presenting the case to the board is as expensive as presenting it at trial, which doubles their costs to win a malpractice case.
Now a REPUBLICAN rep, Robert Rowe of Hillsborough has submitted House Bill 50, to repeal the law requiring a board presentation.
Arrgh. How can a man call himself Republican who is in the pocket of the trial lawyers? How can this man's voter's stand for such cost enhancement and prosecution of their doctors?

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