Vioxx Saga Continues
December 13, 2008
Last May, a Texas appellate court spiked a $32 million (later reduced to $7.75 million) award to the family of a man who had a fatal a heart attack while taking Vioxx pain medication. The WSJ Law Blog reports that the appellate court concluded there was insufficient evidence that the man, who had a pre-existing heart condition, suffered the heart attack as a result of taking the drug. But now the appellate court has reversed its May ruling, sending the case back to trial with “legally sufficient evidence to support a finding of specific causation” – tilting the legal playing field sharply in the direction of the plaintiffs’ lawyers trying the case.
Buying Influence In Texas
November 21, 2008
Texas Watchdog lifts the rock on the efforts by powerful Texas trial lawyer Mikal Watts to buy influence on state courts and in the state legislature – all with an eye toward fattening his already bulging wallet. In the past eight years, Texas Watchdog reports, Watts and his law firm have funneled $4.5 million to Democratic candidate and left-leaning PACs.
What has all this money bought? Mr. Watts isn’t shy about telling. In a letter to an opposing counsel in a personal injury case, Mr. Watts tried to strong arm the defendant into paying a $60 million settlement because any appeal would surely be overturned by a court bought and paid for by his law firm:
In his correspondence, Watts bragged he would prevail in an appeal because his law firm helped finance the campaigns of judges on the state’s 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi.
“This court is composed of six justices, all of whom are good Democrats,” Watts wrote in the letter. “The Chief Justice, Hon. Rogelio Valdez, was recently elected with our firm’s heavy support, and is a man who believes in the sanctity of jury verdicts.”
… Watts then proceeds to list other judges on the court that his law firm supported, including justices Nelda Rodriguez and Linda Yanez.
The discovery of the letter was enough of an embarrassment that Mr. Watts was forced to abandon his own campaign for the U.S. Senate. But it hasn’t stopped him from using his millions to shape the judicial and legislative environment in Texas.
According to Sherry Sylvester of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Texas legislators “introduced 394 pieces of legislation [last year] that would have weakened tort reforms or made it easier to sue.” One particular target is Proposition 12 – a constitutional amendment adopted by Texas voters in 2003 that imposed a reasonable limit on “pain and suffering” awards in medical malpractice cases.
In the final days of the 2008 election season, Mr. Watts and his cronies in the Texas trial bar “accounted for an astounding 97 percent of the Democratic Party’s campaign contributions in the critical last weeks….” A $25,000 check from Mr. Watts helped one Democratic state Senate candidate defeat a Republican incumbent in what Texas Watchdog called “one of the biggest upsets in Texas.”
“It’s clear to me that Mr. Watts has gone above and beyond to make certain our elected officials work for the people and not large special interests,” says a state Democratic Party flack.
Well…except for one large special interest.
Texas vs. Florida
September 9, 2008
There’s probably no more dramatic demonstration of effective tort reform in action than Texas’ constitutional amendment capping non-economic damages (i.e. pain and suffering) to $250,000. Since Texas voters passed Prop. 12 in 2003, the Lone Star State’s largest medical liability carrier has seen the number of lawsuit filings cut in half. Liability insurance, which before Prop. 12 was driving physicians out of state, has declined by 25 percent, and so many doctors are applying for medical licenses that there’s a serious backlog. Whole areas of the state that were once under-served – primarily poor and Hispanic regions – are seeing specialists come and set up practice for the first time. Overall, as this article in the AMA News details (subscription required), the state’s supply of neurosurgeons has jumped 12%.
It’s instructive to compare what’s been called the “Texas Miracle” with the deepening mire in Florida, where trial lawyers still have the upper hand, and showing up at the ER has been compared to playing Russian roulette, because of the shortage of neurosurgeons and other specialists. Trauma centers across the state are periodically forced to shut down because they don’t have the necessary specialists on call, as happened in February when Bayfront Medical Center in Pinellas Country had to start shipping its acutely injured patients to Tampa for treatment.
Naturally the patients sue when this doesn’t turn out so well, and Tenet Healthcare Corp just paid out $2 million for a Boca Raton woman who died after two of its hospitals couldn’t find a neurosurgeon to treat her stroke.
Not really what you’d call a rational health care policy, but clearly it’s working well for the trial lawyers.
Tort Reform Working In Texas
May 19, 2008
Does tort reform work? Look at Texas.
Joseph Nixon of the Texas Public Policy Foundation has an important piece in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal reviewing the stunning turnaround in the Lone Star State after the legislature passed medical liability reform in 2003 and 2005. The highlights:
Greater Access to Care… While doctors are fleeing other states due to the medical liability crisis, over “the past three years, some 7,000 doctors have flooded into Texas…”
Lower Premiums… “…one of the largest malpractice insurance companies in the state [has] slashed premiums by 35%, saving doctors some $217 million [in premiums] over four years.”
A Competitive Insurance Market… While many insurance companies have stopped writing policies in states with a poor liability climate, in Texas “over 30 companies [are] competing for business.”
Spending $ on Patients, Not Lawyers… Thanks to tort reform, Christus Health, a non-profit health provider, has “saved $100 million that it otherwise would have spent fending off bogus lawsuits or paying higher insurance premiums. Every dollar saved was reinvested in helping poor patients.”
Amazing what can happen when a state’s health care system is designed to benefit patients, not lawyers.