According to the Florida Times-Union, a new law may cause medical malpractice cases to become more like workers’ compensation claims in the eyes of the law. The law would be active in the state of Georgia, and has been proposed in Senate Bill 141 by Senator Brandon Beach. The bill claims that there should be a system where patients take complaints about doctors and hospital mistakes. The system would include a panel of physicians who would be paid to listen to the cases and give hearings. This would take care of the medical malpractice claims in the state, and would replace taking them to court. Instead of having to pay the money in court costs, the plaintiffs would simply go to the panel, and the members would deliberate the adequate amount of compensation that the plaintiff should receive.

According to the bill, if the panel decides that compensation is warranted for a plaintiff, then the money will be taken out of a fund that all providers will pay into. This is a model that is based on the no-fault system that is used in some states to cover on-the-job injuries. This way, no particular individual suffers from the mistake that was made or the injury that was allowed to transpire. The changes proposed by this Senator are supposed to simplify the medical malpractice system and may even be able to hold down health-insurance costs. Those in support of the bill also say that they thing it will reduce the liability-insurance premiums for health care providers. They believe that it will cost plaintiffs less money as well because the doctors will no longer continue to order unneeded tests as a part of their defensive medicine.

Supporters of the bill also say that it will help people to get compensation for errors that are significant to the plaintiff but may not be large enough issues to merit attention from a lawyer. Oftentimes people are harmed in medical malpractice instances but the offenses aren’t large enough to cover the cost of a medical malpractice lawsuit. In short, the plaintiff may pay more money to secure a lawyer than he or she will get back after filing the claim. In this situation, the doctors will get away with making a mistake. There are also times that a lawyer may reject a case because he or she does not believe that it will have a good payout. With the new model for medical malpractice cases in place, this would not happen. Even small suits would be worth brining to the attention of the panel because the plaintiff may still be able to get the compensation to cover medical bills and pain and suffering without having to go through the courts.

According to Wayne Oliver, the executive director of Patients for Fair Compensation, Senator Beach is doing both patients and taxpayers a real service by proposing this new legislation. Supports of the bill say that it is in response to a decision that was made three years ago by the Georgia Supreme Court. That decision took a $350,000 cap off of all medical malpractice claims, and allowed men and women with significant maladies as a result of a medical mistake to seek higher amounts of money. Lawyers went up against the Georgia Supreme Court after the cap ruling was originally put in place, claiming that it robbed patients of their just compensation and allowed medical professionals to take their duty to protect patients less seriously. Some lawyers don’t support the new bill brewing in the Georgia Senate and claim that it won’t allow plaintiffs to present their case in front of a jury like they deserve to. If you want more information about this issue, then contact an attorney today!