Medical Malpractice in New Hampshire
Posted by
Ed Van DornOctober 16, 2007 9:44 AMTwo years ago, under pressure from the medical and insurance industries and despite efforts by consumer groups, the New Hampshire legislature passed a law requiring all medical malpractice claims to be screened by an allegedly "neutral panel" before the claim could be heard in court. The insurance and medical groups argued that it would provide an efficient, time and cost saving method of disposing of claims. After two years the opposite has proven true.
On Sunday the Maine Sunday Telegram ran an article by the Associated Press reporting that a study of the 131 medical malpractice cases in New Hampshire since passage of the law shows that only 8 of therm have actually gone through the screening process. How can this in any way be fair to medical malpractice victims? Supporters of the law, namely the medical and insurance industries say that the problems are due to "growing pains". Yet one third of the 31 other states that have passed similar laws have since repealed them, according to an independent Pew Charitable Trust study. According to the Sunday Telegram article:
New Hampshire and Maine are among perhaps 16 states with similar screening-panel laws, according to research by the American Medical Association. But a 2003 study found the laws had been repealed or invalidated in roughly one-third of the 31 states that had adopted them. The study, by University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Catherine Struve, was part of the Pew Charitable Trusts's project on medical liability.
Notice that the New Hampshire law was passed after it was repealed by one third of the states that already tried it. Clearly, the unfair screening panel law was a grab by the medical and insurance industries to get some payback for the handsome campaign contributions they give to key New Hampshire legislators. No other explanation makes sense.
Well, enough is enough and its time that the pendulum start swinging back to restore the rights of aveage citizens against big business and the medical industry. I have been representing medical malpractice victims for over 25 years and I have seen first hand how negligence in the medical industry can destroy lives and families. This bogus law was designed simply to put even more obstacles in the way of the average person's ability to legally fight big medicine and big business and it ought to be repealed.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.