Archive for the ‘Legal News In Nashville’ Category

Tennessee Governor’s Tort Reform Bill Goes Too Far On Negligent Nursing Homes

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Governor’s tort reform goes too far on nursing homes

12:22 AM, Mar. 20, 2011  |

“Personal responsibility” is the key term around which Gov. Bill Haslam has built his policy position on health care in Tennessee.

Insofar as that refers to how patients take steps to live as healthy as possible and avoid unnecessary care, the new governor appears to chart a sound course for the future of a state beset by high levels of obesity, smoking and diabetes.

However, when “personal responsibility” crops up as a rationale for including nursing homes in a proposed cap on medical malpractice lawsuits, a lot of Tennesseans can only shake their heads over the double standard that would be enshrined in Tennessee law.

Nursing home patients and their families will have to exercise personal responsibility, but what about nursing home operators, if they can easily afford any judgment against them for improper or inadequate care?

This proposal is doubly egregious because even as trial lawyers have worked with state officials to reduce the number of lawsuits and hold the line on the amount of awards, the number of Tennessee nursing homes that receive poor ratings for quality of care remains among the nation’s highest.

Nursing home companies already face far fewer lawsuits, but with this legislation the balance would tip completely against patients or their survivors who have valid grievances. It also would tie the hands of juries in Tennessee, which do not have a history of granting excessive awards and need the flexibility currently allowed under the law to do their jobs.

Frivolous lawsuits do occur, and a single overreaching award can be devastating to the staff and other patients at a reputable nursing home or assisted-living facility. Such cases must be deterred, and can be if all stakeholders work together to root out fraud while raising the care standards at all facilities.

But the current legislation goes too far, punishing those who can never afford the years of additional care that actual abuse causes or can never recover the loved one who died as a result and offering no incentive to the nursing home operator to change.

Advocacy organizations such as AARP are asking the governor to exempt nursing home cases from this bill, but that seems unlikely, given that Republican legislators, backed by some large nursing-home operators, have sought for years to set caps on these awards. They now control both House and Senate and have Haslam’s support for across-the-board tort reform.

But the AARP has proposed another compromise that is more than reasonable: Amend the legislation to require that the money saved on reduced awards, legal costs and insurance be used to hire adequate staff and raise the level of quality in Tennessee nursing homes. As AARP notes, nursing facilities that receive higher quality ratings, in Tennessee and in other states, are subject to far fewer patient lawsuits.

Improve care, reduce fraud, and create more health-care jobs — that would be a win-win-win.

BY TED RAYBURN
FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110320/OPINION01/103200355/Governor-s-tort-reform-goes-too-far-nursing-homes?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|p

Share

Tags: , ,
Posted in Legal News In Nashville | Comments Off

After Passage of Tort Reform Bill, Tennessee Citizen Action Asks Governor Haslam, “Where’s The Justice?”

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

AFTER PASSAGE OF TORT REFORM BILL, TENNESSEE CITIZEN ACTION ASKS GOVERNOR HASLAM, “WHERE’S THE JUSTICE?”

Governor Haslam’s “Miscarriage of Justice Act” Amplifies The Need for Civil Justice in Tennessee Courts
NASHVILLE (April 05, 2011) — The attack on hardworking Tennesseans and their families continued today when a piece of Governor Bill Haslam’s legislative package, the “Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011,” passed the first hurdle on its way to becoming law.

The bill will place a $1,000,000 cap on non-economic damages and would also limit punitive damages to twice the amount of compensatory damages or $500,000, whichever is greater. It passed in the House Judiciary Subcommittee and will be heard next in the full House Judiciary Committee.

“It should be called the “Miscarriage of Justice Act of 2011,” said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action, “I don’t know how any legislator can look into the eyes of a victim’s family member and tell them how much they think their loved ones’ lives are worth.”

The Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011 is also a solution in search of a problem as It is widely known that Tennessee juries do not dole out excessive awards. In addition, since 2008 when a unique Tennessee solution was put in place to make it more difficult to file non-meritorious claims, there’s been a 44% decline in the number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed.

Several studies point to the need for a civil justice system that is robust and can hold corporations accountable:

  • A Health and Human Services report released in March estimates that approximately “90 percent of nursing homes in the U.S. have at one time hired an individual with a criminal record.”
  • The 2011 HealthGrades Clinical Excellence Research & Consulting report on trends in hospital quality and patient safety states that there were “79,670 patient deaths among patients who experienced one or more patient safety events.”
  • The same report states that “nearly one million patient-safety incidents occurred among Medicare patients over the years 2006, 2007, 2008.”
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that there were 181,000 severe injuries attributable to medical negligence in 2003

Tennessee Citizen Action believes it is not too late for Governor Haslam to get his priorities in order and stop this attack on Tennessee’s hardworking families.

“It’s common knowledge that damage awards act as a deterrent and make large corporations think twice about repeating egregious acts that lead to abuse, neglect, and death,” Mancini said, “This bill takes away the right of victims to have their day in court and the right of juries to hold accountable any responsible parties.”

Tennessee Citizen Action works in the public interest as Tennessee’s premier consumer rights organization. Our mission is to work tirelessly to improve the overall health, well-being, and quality of life for all people who live and work in Tennessee.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20038384-10391695.html
http://www.healthgrades.com/business/library/research-studies.aspx
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9924/12-18-KeyIssues.pdf

CONTACT:
Mary Mancini
615-480-4678
mary@tnca.org
http://www.tnca.org

Share

Tags: , ,
Posted in Legal News In Nashville | Comments Off

Local Charitable Organizations Receive $2.8 million from Lawsuit Settlement

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Court Distributes Portions of Consumer Class Action Settlement

Nashville— Four local charitable organizations will benefit from a recent consumer class action lawsuit settlement. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, Safe Have Family Shelter and Nashville Lawyers Association for Women are the local recipients of the funds.

The consumer protection lawsuit was brought by purchasers of the hormone replacement drug, Estratest, who charged that Solvay deceptively marketed and falsely advertised Estratest. After payment to class members who submit timely claims a court may distribute any residue funds to nonprofit and charitable organizations whose work serves the underlying objectives of the lawsuit.

“Recently introduced legislation in Tennessee would weaken the rights of consumers to hold corporations accountable for this type of fraudulent conduct,” stated Tennessee Association for Justice President Phillip Miller. “The Tennessee Consumer Protection Act currently protects Tennesseans and Tennessee businesses from schemes when they buy, sell or acquire products or services in Tennessee. This 30 year old statute works and unnecessary changes could take away the rights of Tennesseans.”

“This case is a perfect example of how the current consumer protections work by holding businesses accountable when their product causes harm,” said Elizabeth A. Alexander, a partner in the Nashville office of Lieff Cabraser Heimmann & Bernstein, LLP who represented the consumers in this case. “Our main goal was to ensure proper compensation for those who lost money because of this company’s deceptive marketing practices. After those individuals were fairly compensated, we urged the Court to award the extra funds to charities that could make an impact on the population that was most affected in this case.”

The order issued by the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota provides that $1.025 million will be distributed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, $1.025 million to Meharry Medical College, $650,000 to local homeless shelter, Safe Haven Family Shelter, and $100,000 to Nashville’s Lawyers Association for Women. Within Vanderbilt and Meharry, the court ordered that the funds are to be used to advance research, education, or other activities directly related to the improvement of the health and wellbeing of menopausal women.

The Tennessee Association for Justice advocates for accountability and the constitutional rights of all citizens and works to protect civil justice in Tennessee.

Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Legal News In Nashville | Comments Off