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Corporate Wrongdoers Lose Effort to Evade Responsibility
Washington State Voters Reject Initiative 330
(Monday, November 21, 2005) - On Election Day, November 8,
voters in Washington State, like voters in Oregon and Wyoming in November
2004, rejected attempts by powerful corporations to limit the ability
of patients to hold negligent corporations accountable.
“The defeat of Initiative 330 was a victory for patients and
yet another blow to the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies
that want to evade responsibility for injuring patients, even in cases
of gross negligence,” said Ken Suggs, President of the Association
of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA).
Initiative 330, which was rejected by voters by a margin of 57% to
43%, would have limited compensation for non-economic damages to $350,000
in all cases, no matter how severe the injury or how bad the mistake
by the hospital or medical provider. Non-economic damages provide
compensation for injuries like permanent paralysis, loss of limb or
disfigurement, blindness, brain injury or even death.
The initiative would also have allowed insurance companies and hospitals
to force patients into mandatory binding arbitration, limited attorneys’
fees, and allowed insurance companies to pay damages they owe to victims
over a period of twenty or thirty years or longer. If an injured patient
died before receiving full damages owed by the insurance company,
the company would keep the money instead of paying the surviving family.
Similar ballot initiatives to cap damages in Oregon and Wyoming,
Ballot Measure 35 and Amendment D respectively, were both rejected
by voters in Nov. 2004. “The insurance industry is losing the
argument on medical malpractice,” said Suggs.
In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck
down that state’s cap on non-economic damages as unconstitutional,
and called such limits "unreasonable and arbitrary" because
they negatively impact the most severely injured patients. The U.S.
Senate has refused to consider caps despite tens of millions of dollars
spent by the insurance industry lobbying at the federal level.
“Big corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars
to convince the American people that injured patients are to blame
for high insurance rates – but the public has shown once again
that they will not give up their rights to hold big corporations accountable,”
said Suggs.
Last July, a report by the former insurance commissioner of Missouri
revealed that insurance
industry bottom lines are driving up the costs of medical malpractice
insurance, not claims - over the last five years, the amount malpractice
insurers have collected in premiums has increased 120%, while claims
payouts have remained essentially flat, rising by less than 6%.
“The industry is price-gouging doctors, pure and simple,”
said Suggs.
Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler had urged voters
to reject Initiative 330. In March of this year, Kreidler found a
simpler solution to lowering physicians’ insurance rates than
taking away the rights of victims – he ordered the state’s
largest medical malpractice insurer to refund excess premiums it had
charged to doctors.
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As the world's largest trial bar, ATLA
promotes justice and fairness for injured persons, defends the constitutional
right to trial by jury, and strengthens the civil justice system through
education and disclosure of information critical to public health
and safety. With 60,000 members worldwide, ATLA provides lawyers with
the information and professional assistance they need to serve clients
successfully and protect the democratic values of the civil justice
system.
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