Challenges in state courts: New tort reforms under fire

Physicians and trial lawyers weigh in on reform in West Virginia as physicians in Florida and Ohio closely watch developments in their trial courts.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Nov. 1, 2004.

Physicians in states with newly legislated tort reforms that included noneconomic damages caps knew the laws weren't going to mean much until they survived court challenges that likely would be taken all the way to each state's supreme court.

The highest court in West Virginia will be the first to hear a challenge, but two of the other five states whose legislatures passed tort reform in the past few years are also likely to see such high court challenges eventually, since lawsuits are lingering in their lower courts.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will consider arguments involving that state's law, which reduced the noneconomic damages cap to $250,000 as well as called for the new limit to apply to any cases filed after the date the law took effect, even if the incident that prompted the lawsuit occurred before that July 1, 2003, date.

A ruling is expected as soon as the end of the year.

The first lawsuit challenging Florida's tort reform statute, which included a $500,000 noneconomic damages cap, was filed Aug. 30. And more than a dozen lawsuits have been filed in Ohio trial courts, some challenging that state's entire statute and others challenging specific parts of the law, such as the $350,000 noneconomic damages cap.

The lawsuits don't come as any surprise.

"To get an effective law requires a vote by the legislature and then court challenges that may take 10 years to get a decision," said Donald J. Palmisano, MD, immediate past president of the American Medical Association.