"LET'S BLAME THE TRIAL LAWYERS, THE JURORS, AND THE VICTIMS"

THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY'S RIDICULOUS BLAME GAME

Blaming trial lawyers for the alleged "medical liability crisis" is like blaming prosecutors for overcrowded prisons. After all, medical negligence causes medical liability, not trial lawyers. Blaming our jurors for this alleged crisis - the same jurors whom our community entrusts with the responsibility of deciding life or death in criminal cases - makes as little sense. After all, our jurors determine medical liability, not cause it. And the proposed solution - cap the amount of our jurors' verdicts at some arbitrary number - only punishes those victims of medical negligence who suffer the most harm. That proposed solution destroys medical accountability, rather than enhances it.

So who is behind the state-wide propaganda campaign in support of this blatant violation of victims' and our jurors' rights ? In other words, who stands to gain the most from this onslaught ? The insurance industry, of course.

It's not the average doctor. Make no mistake: he or she has a lot to be upset about. On the revenue side, the insurance industry in Pennsylvania has cut his or her reimbursable rate - the amount the insurance company pays him or her for an office consultation, for example - to one of the lowest in the nation. On the expense side, the insurance industry in Pennsylvania, in an effort to make up for its boneheaded investment strategies during these lean economic times, has jacked up its price for medical malpractice insurance, which doctors must, by law, purchase. Although only a relatively small percentage of doctors cause the vast majority of medical liability, the insurance industry penalizes the average doctor by making him or her pay for the negligence of a relative few. That's just not fair. Why doesn't the insurance industry instead take into account the claims history of the individual doctor before pricing his or her insurance, in the same way your and my auto insurance carriers do ? The relatively few incompetent doctors who create a high risk of medical liability should be made to bear the higher insurance burden, or quit harming their patients.

So, the insurance industry has put the financial squeeze on the average doctor. But rather than stepping up and accepting responsibility for what it's doing, it tries to escape responsibility by falsely blaming trial lawyers and our jurors, inflaming our good doctors to rise up against their own patients, shamefully manipulating our legislators, and badly misleading our community.

As proud members of the Delaware County Trial Lawyers Association, we stand ready to work along side our good doctors toward a solution which has as its currency truth and fairness, and not the insurance industry's propaganda campaign dollars.

The facts you will learn from our website compel one and only one conclusion: our community needs insurance industry reform, not caps. Please call or write your legislators now. Tell them we need insurance industry reform, not caps. Make your voice heard now, before it's too late for all of us.