(This article is from the Pennsylvania Medical Society's website archives.)
A bill that would permit trial lawyers to quantify damages for pain and suffering for auto accidents will not receive a vote in the state Senate, Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) announced.
According to Pileggi, the Senate majority caucused on Monday, Sept. 27, and decided that there were too many objections from the medical, insurance and business communities to put the bill up for a vote.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) strongly believes that damages for pain and suffering should be left up to juries, without suggested award amounts from trial lawyers.
“If this precedent-setting measure had been passed by the Senate, the camel’s nose would have been under the tent and the next step would have been trial lawyers arguing dollar amounts for pain and suffering in medical liability cases. That would have been tragic for both patients and physicians,” said PAMED President James A. Goodyear, MD.
HB 2246 was approved 117-72 by the state House of Representatives on May 3, 2010. It was then sent to the Senate, where it cleared the Transportation Committee on May 4 and the Appropriations Committee on June 28.
Earlier this year, a handful of bills were introduced in the state House that would loosen tort laws in favor of trial lawyers, increase medical liability payouts, and drive up the cost of liability insurance. PAMED strongly opposed these bills and coordinated efforts to fight the legislation with other health care and business organizations.
The bills were introduced at the request of the state’s trial bar association, which now calls itself the Pennsylvania Association for Justice. Those bills haven’t moved, but the language to quantify pain and suffering awards was inserted into HB 2246, which was originally a bill dealing with automobile accident claims.