Pain And Suffering

IT'S NOT RIGHT. Some 200,000 Maryland drivers break the law by not buying car insurance, but when they are in an accident, some of them sue and collect big awards for noneconomic "pain and suffering" damages.They are gaming the system.Not only are these uninsured drivers -- between 5 and 9 percent of Maryland motorists -- taking unfair advantage of state law, they are forcing up the price of car insurance for other motorists.A bill in the state Senate -- it sailed through the House on a 104-20 vote -- would let uninsured motorists collect medical and out-of-pocket losses from an accident, but not pain and suffering awards if they knowingly avoid buying car insurance.

Maryland's highest court upheld the state's limit on jury awards for pain and suffering in personal injury lawsuits Friday, allowing businesses, insurers and others who are sued to breathe a sigh of relief. But it comes as a disappointment to opponents of the limits that were first enacted 25 years ago amid arguments that high awards threaten the affordability of insurance for businesses and discourage physicians from entering high-risk specialties. The 6-1 decision by the Court of Appeals was made in a case that slashed a jury award from $4 million to about $1 million to the Davidsonville parents of a 5-year-old boy who drowned in 2006 in a Crofton swimming pool.

WASHINGTON -- In a year when big-ticket topics such as tobacco lawsuits and highway spending are expected to dominate Congress, a low-profile proposal to revamp auto insurance could become the issue that really pulls at people's purse strings.The auto legislation would cut insurance premiums an average of 32 percent, according to a study last year by Congress' Joint Economic Committee. That would mean savings of $243 a year for the average driver -- or nearly $45 billion a year nationwide.

Police identify man, 19, who drowned in Dundalk creek 3 Baltimore County police identified Tuesday a man who drowned while attempting to swim across a creek a day earlier as a 19-year-old Dundalk resident. Cpl. Michael Hill, a police spokesman, said authorities suspect that Cedric Hart of the 500 block of Main St. had a seizure while swimming across Chink Creek near Bear Creek in Dundalk about 3:15 p.m. Monday. Hart was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in cardiac arrest and pronounced dead at the hospital, according to Hill.

An Anne Arundel County police officer whose cruiser struck a car in Millersville 13 months ago, killing a Glen Burnie woman and her 19-month-old daughter, is seeking $100,000 in compensation from the woman's husband for pain and suffering. Officer Stephen C. Perron filed the claim in response to an $11 million wrongful-death suit brought in September in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by Eric Forney of Glen Burnie against Perron, the county government, the county executive, the police chief and several other unnamed officers.

An article in Thursday's editions of The Sun about a Baltimor Circuit Court jury's awarding $10.2 million to a Baltimore woman and her son incorrectly stated that part of the award was for punitive damages. Those damages were for pain and suffering.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 11/01/97

President Bush is sending to Congress this week a plan to pressure states to limit court awards for medical malpractice. States would be encouraged to adopt limits on the amounts that malpractice victims can collect for pain and suffering, in the belief that lower insurance premiums for doctors will allow them to provide more services to more people.Of 326 Evening Sun readers and other callers to SUNDIAL yesterday, 232, or 71 percent, think the monetary amounts victims of medical malpractice can collect for pain and suffering should be limited.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday blocked legislation that would have limited jury awards in medical malpractice cases, shunting aside one of President Bush's policy objectives. In procedural votes on two bills, proponents failed in bids to cut off debate. The defeat means that the effort to restrain malpractice awards is unlikely to move forward unless Republicans increase their numbers on Capitol Hill in November's election. The bills would have limited damages for pain and suffering to $250,000 in most instances, with an upper limit of $750,000 for cases involving multiple medical facilities.

HOW DO YOU suppose the president of the United States arrived at the $250,000 price tag on pain and suffering? Do you think he would be satisfied with $250,000 for pain and suffering if, say, a member of his family sustained abdominal trauma from a fall from a tree swing and bled to death because emergency room physicians didn't make a timely and precise diagnosis? (True story, Baltimore County, 1992. You can look it up.) Or maybe pain and suffering - or "noneconomic damages" - should max out at $650,000.

Maryland doctors would pay 12 percent more in premiums for professional liability insurance under a rate increase proposed by Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland.It was the first rate increase requested by Med Mutual, which insures an estimated 75 percent of Maryland doctors, in at least seven years.In its filing, the insurer cited a recent change to the state law that sets a maximum amount for noneconomic damage awards, which the company said was causing costs and premiums to rise.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday blocked legislation that would have limited jury awards in medical malpractice cases, shunting aside one of President Bush's policy objectives. In procedural votes on two bills, proponents failed in bids to cut off debate. The defeat means that the effort to restrain malpractice awards is unlikely to move forward unless Republicans increase their numbers on Capitol Hill in November's election. The bills would have limited damages for pain and suffering to $250,000 in most instances, with an upper limit of $750,000 for cases involving multiple medical facilities.

HOW DO YOU suppose the president of the United States arrived at the $250,000 price tag on pain and suffering? Do you think he would be satisfied with $250,000 for pain and suffering if, say, a member of his family sustained abdominal trauma from a fall from a tree swing and bled to death because emergency room physicians didn't make a timely and precise diagnosis? (True story, Baltimore County, 1992. You can look it up.) Or maybe pain and suffering - or "noneconomic damages" - should max out at $650,000.

Some Maryland doctors say they welcome as a good start the hastily negotiated legislation passed by the General Assembly last week to rein in malpractice premiums, but they warned that more far-reaching legal reforms would be required to solve an insurance crisis that threatens some physicians' practices. The bill would slash doctors' malpractice premiums, which are scheduled to increase 33 percent this year, and impose a tax on HMOs to subsidize premiums. Even though Democrats promise to override an expected veto by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who opposes the tax, some doctors say they will continue to press for more measures to limit lawyers' fees and lower limits on awards for pain and suffering.

The family of a Pasadena teenager filed lawsuits yesterday against two Anne Arundel County homeowners for $1.75 million, seeking compensation for the Northeast High School student's death after a fight outside a party at the couple's house. The claims, filed in lawsuits on behalf of Noah Jamahl Jones' mother, Robin Jones, and his aunt, Phyllis Jones, with whom he had been living, say that Steve and Evelyn Steinbach of the 700 block of 205th St. in Pasadena failed to "exercise control and supervision of the social gathering taking place on their property."

A state Senate committee showed some sentiment for malpractice reform yesterday, and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and House leaders said they would push forward to pass legislation this year that would curb the rapid escalation of malpractice premiums. A day of legislative maneuvering, however, ended with no official action and unclear prospects about what type of bill could be enacted this year. "We now are at the beginning stages of a health care access crisis. I want to stop it before it degenerates dramatically," the governor said.

Physicians will rally in Annapolis today to protest skyrocketing malpractice insurance costs, which this year have increased 28 percent for many doctors in Maryland and more for specialists. The doctors want limits on pain and suffering awards rolled back to $350,000 from the current $635,000, along with curbs on lawyers' fees, a system that allows awards of future damages paid over time, and a change in the way lost wages and other economic damages are calculated. The demands are angering many people who believe they should be able to sue doctors for malpractice and win large sums of money.

In a ruling that could increase damages awards paid to tenants injured in Baltimore public housing, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued an opinion yesterday holding that the Housing Authority of Baltimore City cannot claim immunity for injuries caused by the agency's negligence. The ruling came in the case of Crystal Bennett, now 12, who was poisoned in 1988 by lead paint in a house owned by the authority in the 700 block of Cator Ave. A jury ruled that the child was entitled to $630,000 in damages in 1996.

AFTER 28 years of delivering babies, Pikesville physician Robert L. Brenner had a sentimental ambition: He wanted to deliver the babies of the babies he had ushered into the world. But that dream evaporated recently, three weeks before the first of the next generation was due, because Dr. Brenner couldn't afford malpractice insurance. Last month he scaled back his practice to gynecology alone in order to save $42,000 a year on malpractice coverage. Insuring combined obstetric and gynecologic services was consuming nearly 50 cents of every dollar he and a partner are paid at $1,600 per delivery -- and a hefty premium increase is coming next year.