Personal Injury Law

Tennessee Debates about Making Changes to Medical Malpractice Laws

Medical malpractice laws in many states and here in Tennessee are put in place to help protect the patient and their rights. When something goes wrong in a hospital or during a visit with a doctor, these laws allow the residents of Tennessee to file a claim of medical malpractice and to be compensated appropriately for any pain and suffering, the error or medical negligence caused them. Now, the state of Tennessee is considering making some changes to these laws. If you have questions about these changes or have suffered due to medical malpractice, you should consult a Tennessee medical malpractice lawyer right away to have your case heard and find out if you are entitled to compensation.

Tennessee legislature is considering two bills that would change medical malpractice claims. The first bill is about changes to the liability standard from negligence to gross negligence in cases that concern doctors and other medical staff treating patients in the emergency room. The liability standard that is in place now is for regular negligence which means that the medical staff failed to proper care to a patient according to the standard of care for their profession, and these actions or lack of actions, resulted in an injury of the patient. Gross negligence is considered more difficult to prove and it has been defined as a ?negligent act done with utter unconcern for the safety of others.? Other states have defined it as ?the failure to exercise even the slightest care?. If these changes are made, it will make it harder for patients claiming medical malpractice to file a claim and successfully sue the medical staff of an emergency room.

The second bill being considered is one that would place a $1 million cap on non-economic damages in these particular cases. Non-economic is described as damages ?for pain and suffering as well as inconvenience, discomfort, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of the enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation, and punitive damages?. However, in Tennessee each year, less than seven cases ever even reach the $1million mark or higher.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).