Texas voters passed Proposition 12 in 2003, which caps non-economic damages, as an amendment to the state’s constitution. According to a September 8, 2008 article by Amy Lynne Sorrell that appeared on the American Medical Association website, other states have followed Texas’ lead. North Carolina, Colorado and Wisconsin have also set limits to non-economic damages, according to the article.
Opponents of the caps say that the law unfairly benefits doctors. The AMA.org article cited the former past president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, Jay Harvey, who said that more plaintiff attorneys are refusing medical liability cases because it’s no longer economically feasible.
In a related story, an Iowa Mesothelioma civil suit names 72 defendants and seeks several hundred thousand dollars. According to an article by Kelly Holleran that appeared in the MadisonRecord.com website on September 8, 2008, Leona Pettibone claims that she became ill with Mesothelioma because of her husband Jerry Pettibone’s work around asbestos at Union Carbide. She claims, according to the article, that asbestos dust from her husband’s work clothes caused the rare cancer. Jerry Pettibone worked at Union Carbide from 1965 to 1986.
The article did not list any of the other firms named in the lawsuit. The suit claims that the defendants should have anticipated and prevented the asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma is a cancer that usually attacks the protective covering of the lungs or heart.
Sources:
AMA News
The Madison Record
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