Although Texas legislators and voters last year approved broad limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, the benefits may be slower to materialize than hoped. The medical liability insurance “market is still reeling from an avalanche of suits filed in anticipation that lawmakers would cap noneconomic damages. … The equivalent of four years of medical liability lawsuits were dumped on Harris County courts in the first nine months of [last] year — prior to the effective date of the medical liability limits. This pattern of flooding the courts was repeated statewide. All of the cases have to be defended, and all are governed under the old law, which imposes no cap.” (Bruce Ehni & Jon Opelt (Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse Houston), “Rush to courthouse delays benefits of Prop. 12”, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 30)
Posts Tagged ‘Houston’
Morales: sealed papers could show tobacco-suit misconduct
“Dan Morales, the former attorney general jailed for scheming to steal millions of dollars from Texas’ tobacco settlement, says sealed court documents could show wrongdoing on the part of private lawyers who represented the state.” (see Nov. 2 and links from there). Morales said a year ago that he believed the Big Five tobacco lawyers he hired may have breached their loyalty to the state in the course of taking home $3.3 billion in fees, and now says documents sealed as part of his criminal case would show such misconduct if made public. The documents were sealed by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks at the request of attorney Mike Tigar, representing the Five. “Also Friday, Marc Murr, a former Houston lawyer charged as a co-defendant to Morales, was sentenced to six months in federal prison. In October, Murr pleaded guilty to mail fraud.” (Janet Elliott, “Morales urges probe of tobacco attorneys”, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 20).
Enron examiner: $100 million plus immunity, please
“The $100 million man of Enron’s bankruptcy, court-appointed examiner Neal Batson, is seeking to cut his ties with the case after 18 months. Having produced 4,000 pages of reports outlining the tangled financial partnerships Enron used to mask its dwindling fiscal health, Batson has asked a bankruptcy judge for immunity from any and all subpoenas, permission to shred the documents he has collected and complete protection from any liability.” (Eric Berger, “Examiner has had enough of Enron”, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 4; Anthony Lin, “Enron Examiner Billed Estate for $100 Million”, New York Law Journal, Dec. 5)(see Nov. 26, Jun. 29; more)(& see Jul. 23, 2004).
Enron bankruptcy costs expected to top $1 billion
MTBE liability and the energy bill
Although there are plenty of outrages in the energy bill, argues Gregg Easterbrook at his New Republic weblog, one provision that is not outrageous is the waiver exempting oil companies from liability for using the gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) (Nov. 24). “Democrats are expressing outrage over the MTBE waiver because some enviro fundraisers see this chemical as the next one to get people really frightened over, while the tort bar has visions of big settlements dancing in its head.” But Congress mandated the use of MTBE in its 1991 Clean Air Amendments, Easterbrook says, and it is strange to punish petrochemical companies for complying with the wishes of both Republican and Democratic environmental officials. Coverage: H. Josef Hebert, “GOP lawmakers blame suits over gas additive for bill’s delay”, AP/Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 24; Michael Davis, “Energy measure hinges on MTBE dispute”, Houston Chronicle, Nov. 21; “Congress Debates Gasoline Additive Liability”, AP/Fox News, Oct. 7. And this morning it is being reported that the energy bill has died for this year in the Senate, in part because of irreconcilable disputes over the MTBE waivers (Dan Morgan, “Senate Energy Bill Dead for This Year”, Washington Post, Nov. 25)
Dog gets off leash, punitive damages for pet store
William Dyer at BeldarBlog has some comments (Nov. 16) about a case in which an Austin, Tex. judge awarded $47,000 in damages, including both emotional and punitive damages, against Petco over the death of a dog that got away from a Petco employee while being walked after a grooming, later ran into traffic and was killed. (“Judge awards $47,000 in runaway pet case”, AP/Houston Chronicle, Nov. 16; Claire Osborn, “High price put on dog’s life”, Austin American-Statesman, Nov. 16). For more on damage claims over the emotional worth of pets, see Jul. 30 and links from there.
Insurers roll back Texas med-mal rates
Confirming the hopes of supporters of Texas’s Proposition 12 (see Sept. 4, Sept. 6, Sept. 14), various companies that write medical malpractice insurance have moved quickly to cut the rates they charge doctors. “Texas Medical Liability Trust, which insures more than 3,000 Houston-area doctors, will cut rates by 12 percent, effective Jan. 1. … Dr. Charles W. Bailey Jr., president of the Texas Medical Association, says he expected insurers to reduce rates after the proposition passed, but didn’t think it would happen so quickly. Outside insurers could be returning to write policies in Texas again in the near future, Bailey predicts.” (Allison Wollam, “Medical insurance rates roll back”, Houston Business Journal, Oct. 6). During the Prop 12 campaign, the editorialists of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who opposed the measure, deemed “debatable” the proposition that the damage limitations at issue “will bring down, or at least stabilize, insurance rates” (“Keeping courts open”, Aug. 24).
Annals of zero tolerance: sharing asthma inhaler
Texas: “A teenager was disciplined for sharing medication used to treat asthma, but he said it saved his girlfriend’s life, News2Houston reported Wednesday. Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol. … But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district’s no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police. The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.” (“Teenager In Trouble In Inhaler Incident”, Yahoo/KPRC, Oct. 8)(via WSJ “Best of the Web“)(see Apr. 8-9, 2002). More: Alan Brain gets the principal’s side of the story including some updates (student said not to have been expelled, police will not press charges) (Oct. 13). But see Click2Houston, Oct. 10 (student expelled until after Christmas, but has chosen to homeschool instead of returning).
Murr to plead guilty in tobacco-fee case
Oh, that medical privacy
Police have arrested 42-year-old Juvenal Caballero Guerrero, formerly a patient-care assistant at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, on charges of “selling about 12 pages of patient information for $500 to a representative of Industrial Safety Consultants, a company that advertises ‘investigations regarding accidents and injuries’ from its Houston offices. According to court documents, investigators were told the company has sold stolen patient records to personal-injury lawyers. … Prosecutors said the arrests won’t stop with Guerrero…’There are lots of other people involved,'” Harris County prosecutor Lester Blizzard told the Houston Chronicle, including employees of other health institutions. Lawyers might also face charges if they can be proved to have directly solicited business from accident victims. (“Former Houston hospital worker arrested”, AP/Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 28; “Hospital Employee Charged With Theft, Sale of Patient Information”, BNA Health Law Reporter, undated Sept.; Annie Blanco, “Hospital worker arrested for medical record theft”, News 24 Houston, Aug. 28)(via SickOfLawsuits.org)