Medical Malpractice News

Statement of AAJ President Ken Suggs on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Hearing on Health Courts

June 22 Ken Suggs, President of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), issued the following statement. Read the statement

Senators Santorum and Frist Attack Victims of Medical Negligence to Garner Campaign Cash from Insurance Industry

June 1 Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tn.) are at it again, reprising the medical malpractice myths in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area today to fill their pockets with campaign contributions while ignoring mounting evidence that lawsuits intended to hold hospitals and nursing homes accountable for gross negligence have nothing to do with insurance premiums. Read the statement

New Study Shows Courts Not Clogged With Frivolous Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

May 11 New research published in the May 11 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine establishes that almost every medical malpractice suit filed in the United States has a meritorious basis and rejects claims that the civil justice system is inundated with frivolous lawsuits. Read the statement

AAJ: Senate Votes to Put Patients’ Rights Ahead of Big Insurance Company Profits

May 8 For the seventh time since 2002, the Senate on Monday rejected anti-patient legislation that would have capped awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, resulting in demands that the upper chamber abandon the ill-conceived proposal and focus on issues of greater importance to Americans. Read the statement

AAJ Backgrounder: Frist Continues to Mislead the Public on Medical Malpractice

May 5 In what can only be described as a dazzling virtuoso performance, Sen. Bill Frist stood on the Senate floor Friday and uttered a stream of misleading and inaccurate statements so vast in behalf of medical malpractice legislation that the portraits of former Senate leaders displayed throughout the Capitol blushed in embarrassment. Read the statement

Conrad Burns Calls Montana Families Devastated by Medical Negligence “Frivolous”

May 4 Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) used the floor of the U.S. Senate to insult victims of medical malpractice on Thursday, asserting that the only people who could possibly be harmed by an ill-conceived measure to apply a one-size-fits-all cap on non-economic damages “are the folks who make a living just in frivolous lawsuits.” Read the statement

Background

AAJ strongly believes in patients' rights to hold the health care industry accountable when patients are recklessly maimed and killed by unsafe drugs, medical devices, or shoddy care. Lawsuits lead to safer drugs and a health care system that's accountable to the people. 98,000 people are killed every year by medical mistakes, yet sometimes the circumstances of the deaths are closely guarded secrets. We need open, mandatory reporting systems of medical errors to improve care and insurance reforms to prevent the insurance industry from price-gouging doctors.

How S. 23 Discriminates Against Women
National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
Mothers and Babies Should Not Be Second Class Citizens in Our Nation's Courts
Nursing Home Abuse and the Federal Medical Malpractice Bill: By the Numbers
The Med Mal Myth (Tom Baker)
Are Malpractice Insurers Losing Money?
Truth About Health Care Costs
Debunking the Top 5 Myths about Medical Malpractice

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