Texas Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on Malpractice Caps
Back in 2003, the Texas legislature passed a horrible law which capped the damages recoverable in medical malpractice cases. An amendment to the Texas Constitution was also passed in which voters of this Texas narrowly gave approval for this law. Is this cap on damages constitutional? The Texas Supreme Court has not ruled on it yet, as it takes time for “new law” malpractice cases to be filed, worked up through expensive discovery, tried before a jury and then appealed. The Texas Supreme Curt actually had a chance to hear the arguments on whether the caps are constitutional, but this week issued an Order by which they denied hearing the case. The case was actually appealed by the side which is in favor of the caps. That sounds unusual—because it is. Usually you see the folks who are challenging the caps to bring the appeal, but this time is brought on a direct appeal (skipping the appellate courts) by the Texas Hospital Association and the Texas Medical Association.
So we will have to wait and see whether the Texas Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of this bad law. Since this Court is very pro-business and has an abysmal record of voting against the claims brought by the injured parties, I think we all know how they will eventually rule.
So why is this law so bad? Well, just about every attorney who used to handle medical malpractice claims no longer takes them because the damages are so limited that is just does not make economic sense to pursue a case. The cases are very expensive to handle and when the eventual recovery is so limited, then it just makes better sense for the injury attorney to quit taking those types of cases. At the Anderson Law Firm, we stopped handling these types of cases and routinely turn down the opportunity to represent victims of medical malpractice. The result is that injured parties or their families end up not being able to find a lawyer to take their case. So, unfortunately, most instances of true malpractice just end up not being pursued.
