Mo. House passes third attempt at medical malpractice tort reform

The Missouri House of Representatives is taking another run at tort reform legislation that last year saw groups of the state’s leading doctors and lawyers stand diametrically opposed.

By a vote of 101-50, the House approved House Bill 118 on March 5, which would reinstate the $350,000 limit on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, according to a news release. The legislation challenges the Supreme Court’s ruling that liability limits violate Missourians’ common-law rights to seek damages for medical malpractice claims.

Sponsored by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, HB 118 mirrors his 2014 session legislation – HB 1173 – which also passed the House. However, the companion bill – Senate Bill 589 – died in committee. According to Springfield Business Journal archives, the Burlison bill is the House’s third attempt at passing the measure. In 2013, a similar bill passed in the House but was stopped by a filibuster in the Senate.

House Speaker John Diehl Jr., R-Town and Country, praised his colleagues in a news release for “their overwhelming support of legislation designed to contain the costs of health care for Missouri families and retain and attract good doctors to the state.”

“When there’s no limit on what the jury could award you, it’s like the lottery system,” Burlison told his colleagues on the House floor. “Reasonable medical malpractice limits are a vital component to containing health care costs for Missouri families.

“Many other states have used limits effectively to keep the cost of health care affordable for everyone. We need limits in place again to bring the kind of certainty to the system that will keep insurance rates in check.”
 
A year ago yesterday, roughly 250 doctors from across the state dressed in white physician’s coats and descended on the Missouri Capitol in a demonstration of support for the 2014 legislation, according to SBJ archives. The white coat rally was organized by a statewide group of some 31 health care organizations and business associations, dubbed the Show-Me Tort Reform Coalition.

In 2012, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled caps on noneconomic damages were unconstitutional, removing the state’s tort reform law enacted in 2005. Previously, Missouri had capped noneconomic damages 1986–2002, when another Supreme Court ruling limited the effectiveness of the caps by permitting separate caps to separate defendants, according to the archives.

In 2014, the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys stood as staunch opponents to limiting jury awards.  

“In both the United States and state constitutions, we have certain basic rights that should not be violated by the government or special interests. The right to a trial by jury in civil matters is one of those,” association Immediate Past President Steve Garner told SBJ last March. “I think it is as significant a right as the right to bear arms and the right to worship. If we start interfering with this right, then where do we go next?”

Speaker Diehl pointed to neighboring states of Tennessee and Kansas, which have limits in place, saying enacting limits in the Show-Me State would “keep our medical professionals from relocating across the border.”

However, Garner, a shareholder of Springfield law firm Strong-Garner-Bauer PC, said while several states currently have caps in place, the supreme courts of neighboring states Arkansas, Oklahoma and Illinois have ruled those caps as unconstitutional.

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.[[In-content Ad]]