Last year, the Missouri Supreme Court found that Section 538.210, which capped non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, violated the right to a jury trial guaranteed under the Missouri Constitution. Non-economic damages are those that compensate an individual for pain, suffering, etc. The statute capped these damages at $350,000.00.

Following the decision in Watts vs. Lester E. Cox Medical Centers, 376 S.W.3d 633 (Mo. 2012), the tort-reform advocates immediately began with their old song and dance routine that doctors would leave the state of Missouri because their malpractice insurance premiums would rise without a limit on non-economic damages. The Missouri legislature has done its part, introducing Senate Bill 64, which not only seeks to restore the non-economic damages cap, but also seeks to raise burden of proof for obtaining non-economic damages. SB 64 seeks to raise the burden of proof to clear and convincing evidence, which is essentially the civil equivalent of the criminal beyond a reasonable doubt standard.

The problem with the bill and with the tort-reformers position is that there is absolutely no proof that medical malpractice premiums are reduced when there are non-economic damages caps. Recently, a doctor and a professor teamed up to pen an article entitled Five Myths of Medical Malpractice. In their article, certain tort-reform positions were debunked – including the argument that doctors will move to states with non-economic damage caps.

The article was not published in a fly by night newspaper or magazine. It was published in the Chest journal, which is a peer-reviewed publication of the American College of Chest Physicians. The article concluded that caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases “do little to improve the malpractice system…they do not make health care safer, reduce health care spending, compensate those who are negligently injured, or make the liability system work better.” The authors conclude that the best reform for medical care is to adopt “patient safety initiatives that reduce the frequency and severity of medical mistakes.” The same result was reached in a study from Public Citizen, published in July, 2012, titled Medical Malpractice Payments Sunk to Record Low in 2011.

Please take time to learn the facts and contact us should you have questions about a medical malpractice claim.