In Texas, many people whose near and dear ones died because of medical malpractice by a doctor, the state’s cap in medical malpractice awards have been a terrible. For a long time people are unable to confirm their case as a fit case for medical malpractice law suite, moreover they are unable to find a good lawyer to handle their case most of the time; on the other hand lawyers say there’s no money in it anymore. Texas’s changes in medical malpractice law are helping to attract out-of-state doctors who welcome the increased protection from high medical malpractice awards and sharp fall in insurance premiums. But consumer groups are sharply criticizing the state’s cap on pain-and-suffering awards as they are ruthlessly limiting legitimate medical malpractice claims.
Hefty medical malpractice awards and trivial medical malpractice lawsuits enrich the trial lawyers and at the same time they put a heavy burden on doctors and hospitals. Doctors and hospitals seek a way out through the use of defensive medicine, but as a whole they put a burden on the entire healthcare system. But the changes really hurt the victims of medical malpractices while actually doing very little to reduce the cost of healthcare. Most of the states have much higher caps on pain-and-suffering awards, allowing up to $1 million in the medical malpractice awards. But in Texas, the sharp curb on medical malpractice awards has succeeded at its goal of attracting doctors. The Texas Medical Board is receiving more and more applications for registration now.
But for many people, change in Texas’s medical malpractice award law has restrained their efforts to file a lawsuit to get the justice and get the doctors penalized for their negligence; it is a pity that no law firm is ready to touch most of the cases of such kind and the doctors can literally get away with murder. Although there is sufficient proof of the medical malpractice is available, this is only due to the poor law administration by the Texas state to handle the medical malpractice awards. Lawyers still take cases of a victim who earns a high income because Texas law does not limit economic damages, and juries can still grant high awards for lost income. But it is very difficult for people earning lower-income, or for those people who are unemployed, the only way to get a large award for them remains in compensation for pain and suffering.
But the cap has clearly helped to make medical care more accessible to many residents by increasing their medical options in Texas. But even as the doctors move into Texas in far greater numbers, they tend to locate in the same urban areas. Supporters of the restrain on medical malpractice jury awards had said that malpractice laws were responsible for shortages of doctors in rural Texas. Doctors say that the issue of malpractice is complicated and that in cases where a doctor does not cure a person or treats an ailment, does not mean the doctor should be penalized.