Volume I

THE LAWSUIT ABUSE EPIDEMIC IS SPREADING

Unharmed litigants are filing suit and depriving patients who have been truly harmed from receiving compensation

• "Bayer is facing more than 8,000 lawsuits after its widely used cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol was withdrawn from the market. At least 6,000 of those suits, however, are being filed by people who did not suffer any side effects whatsoever." Scott Gottleib, M.D. The New York Times, February 26, 2003.

• Even though she admittedly had never been harmed by the heartburn drug Propulsid, Hazel Norton of Rolling Fork, Mississippi joined a mass action against its makers because she "thought she might get a couple of thousand dollars." When her doctor subsequently left the state in response to excessive litigation, Norton commented, "I'm kind of upset. I do not want him leaving because of all the suits. If we run off all the doctors, what are the people gonna do?" Clarion Ledger, "Tort Reform: Just What the Doctors Ordered?" July 29, 2002.

A man in Mississippi is suing 3 Jackson lawyers, claiming they owe him money for "procuring" clients who filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits against drug and insurance companies. "Suit Claims Jackson Co. lawyers owe man money," The Sun Herald, April 13, 2003.

Texas: The Senate is considering a comprehensive civil justice reform bill that will address many of the problems plaguing the Texas courts including abusive class actions, the medical liability crisis and venue shopping.

Federal: The Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 2003 has been referred to the Subcommittee on Health. The bill would enhance patient access to medical care by limiting frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits.

• Lawsuit costs passed on to consumers add up to nearly $721 per year for every U.S. citizen. (U.S. Tort Costs:2002 Update, Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, February 2003)

• According to a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services, limiting unreasonable jury awards could cut healthcare costs by 5-9%, which would save $70-126 billion in health care costs per year. (Addressing the New Healthcare Crisis: Reforming the Medical Litigation System to Improve the Quality of Healthcare, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 3, 2003)

• The Physician Insurers Association of America reports that under typical contingency fee arrangements, lawyers walk away with 30-50% of any jury award to the plaintiff, plus an additional percentage of the award to cover expenses. (Medical Malpractice Claim Expenses, Physician Insurers Association of America, 1999)

"These new data deliver hard numbers to a shocking reality- America's broken medical liability system is having disastrous effects on patients and their physicians." AMA President Yank D. Coble, Jr. MD, PR Newswire, April 3, 2003. (referring to an April 2003 study released by the AMA)

President Bush is prudently proposing the imposition of caps on medical malpractice awards for pain and suffering… But these ceilings are merely a stopgap. They deal with only one aspect of what greedy trial lawyers and timid judges are doing to destroy the American health care system. Steve Forbes, "Fact and Comment," Forbes Magazine, March 31, 2003.