Cyrus Dugger

Texas Justice

From the Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog:

Texas Courthouse Doors Slamming Shut For More Citizens

The weekly newspaper The Texas Lawyer recently featured a review of the year 2005 as related to various legal practice areas. The changes in laws regarding personal injury were summarized by Dallas lawyer Mary Alice McLarty. The article:

PERSONAL-INJURY LAW: Slammed Courthouse Doors
by Mary Alice McLarty

The most significant trend in personal-injury law in 2005 is how Texas families, already devastated by needless death and injury, are experiencing the full impact of the so-called tort reforms handed down by the Texas Legislature in 2003.

The citizens of Texas, especially those harmed by medical negligence, are too often finding the courthouse doors closed. The most onerous portion of the draconian medical malpractice bill, codified in Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice & Remedies Code (CPRC), is the $250,000 cap on non-economic damages. Attorneys also are finding it more difficult to effectively represent families, because of provisions such as the nonsensical declaration in the definitions of CPRC §74.001, which declares that “all persons claiming to have sustained damages as a result of the bodily injury or death of a single person are considered a single claimant.”

Thus, nursing-home negligence cases under the new laws are almost impossible, which will inevitably lead to more negligence and abuse of the elderly being hidden from public scrutiny. Lawyers across Texas have the sad task of explaining the new economic reality to families seeking help: that their loved one did not have economic value, therefore no one will be held accountable for the medical negligence. (keep reading)

Posted at 11:29 AM, Dec 04, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)