CM Publisher Has HuffPo Piece On GOP Civil Tort Priorities

Courts Monitor Publisher Sara Warner has published a Huffington Post story with her take on recent developments involving the New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. She notes that “… the new Republican-controlled congress rolled up its sleeves and rolled out its agenda over the last week, and along with immigration and budget issues it turns out “asbestos litigation reform” is an apparent priority. The powerful House Judiciary Committee held a formal hearing in Washington in what amounts to a national campaign targeted at bankruptcy transparency – but fueled largely by both a landmark federal case out of North Carolina and the ongoing New York scandal involving the arrest of state assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.”
 

Bicyclist Hit By Truck Wins $34.5 Million In Jury Trial

A Los Angeles bicyclist, who suffered injuries including a lower leg amputation when he was hit by a big-rig truck making a right-hand turn, was awarded $34,555,220 after a personal injury trial.
 
His attorneys said that Alan Casillas, was 19 years old on the morning of Dec. 7, 2012 and was riding his bicycle to a friends’  house. They say that’s when a big rig drove over part of the sidewalk while making a right turn from Tweedy Boulevard to Alameda Street. They said the truck struck Casillas, knocking him from the bike and crushing his left leg, among other injuries.  [Read more…]

California Considers Raising Famous Med-Mal Cap

After failing in the Democrat-controlled legislature several times, advocates of raising the California medical malpractice damages from $250,000 to $1 million are going directly to voters. “Proposition 46,” explains public radio station KPVR, which also explains that the proposition “… is actually three measures in one. It would require drug testing of doctors. It would require physicians to check a database before prescribing patients addictive substances. And it would raise the limit on damages awarded in medical malpractice suits…”
 
The NPR affiliate reports that the current cap “… was set in 1975 under MICRA – The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act.  Prop 46 would raise the cap to over a million dollars. Dr. Haskins says that would make medical liability premiums go up.”
 
Read both sides of the debate, and what it might mean to medical practice in the Golden State, here: Proposition 46 Has Physicians and Attorneys At Odds