The Florida Supreme Court, having received certified questions from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States on the topic, is set to address the constitutional questions raised by the legislature's medical malpractice damage caps passed into law in 2003. The case is McCall v. The United States of America. The Draconian legislation capped non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases in Florida. Since 2003, the medical industry in Florida has enjoyed a level of protection never before seen in Florida. Catastrophically injured medical malpractice victims, meanwhile, have been kicked to the curb, many if not most of them unable to find competent counsel and unable to recover justice.
Here is the initial brief filed by the plaintiff:
Open publication - Free publishing - More damage caps
The caps, ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million depending on the case, have created two classes of citizens: those with minor injuries capable of recovering full justice, full compensation, and those with catastrophic injuries who are unable to recover full justice. Was this a fair way of dispensing with so-called "frivolous litigation?" Does eliminating the rights of the most injured, the most in need of help, create fairness in our society? Damage caps were a feature of the Bush/Karl Rove era. They are sinister and have nothing to do with frivolous litigation and everything to do with stacking the deck in favor of the medical industry, while hurting the trial bar, a group that gives money to Democrats. Politics got in the way of sound public policy. Let's hope the Supreme Court addresses this case based on the merits, and based on fairness, not on politics!