TomPaine.com: You’ve called tort reform "one of the biggest public relations scams ever." Why is that?
Joanne Doroshow: Well, there is no basis for it whatsoever. Lawsuits, lawsuit filings, jury verdicts are down, and they’ve been that way for years. And what’s really driving the call for tort reform today, is a crisis in malpractice insurance, or insurance in general, which is the result of price-gouging by the insurance industry to make up for lost investment income.
But insurance companies are blaming juries and victims for their own mismanagement and lost investment income. So, that’s why it’s a scam.
TP.c: Why are hospital CEOs and physician groups... why are they blaming juries and not the insurance companies?
Doroshow: Doctors and hospitals and HMOs all want their liability limited. They don’t want to be sued. They don’t want to be second-guessed when medical errors occur. And one way to certainly stop patients who have been injured from suing is to take their rights away, which is what tort reform does. It basically so limits compensation or provides so many obstacles for people who have been injured, that it’s impossible for them to find the resources to bring a lawsuit.
Ultimately, they have to hire lawyers and attorneys can’t afford to bring cases -- these are extraordinarily expensive cases to bring and to win.
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