Why Victims Matter In Medical Malpractice Cases And To Fight Medical Malpractice Caps

With the medical malpractice caps causing a stir both nationally and for some states, particularly in Wisconsin and West Virginia, we need to remember that medical malpractice cases are not about money. They are not about attorneys cashing in, or victims milking a hospital, doctor, nurse, or insurance carrier dry.

No, medical malpractice cases are about something more. They are about protecting the rights of victims who are harmed. We all know that healthcare is VERY expense. If you are paying so much for healthcare, and you are trusting you—your body—to medical providers. Shouldn’t you get competent treatment? Shouldn’t you get what you deserve? After all, if you buy an expensive car that doesn’t work, don’t we have lemon laws to protect you? Those aren’t capped, and that is over a car, so why do some politicians what medical malpractice capped when it is about your life?

It doesn’t make sense. And you should be questioning this. Medical malpractice lawsuits are there to compensation the harm to a victim who was wronged. There is no cookie-cutter approach to them, nor can a medical malpractice cap on damages do that. There must be accountability and a way for a trier of fact—a jury or a judge—to assess damages that are unique to each case.

Medical malpractice caps get rid of that. They also allow doctors, who know they have only a certain amount of liability, not better themselves after a mistake. There are no repercussions. Just how a toddler who steals a cookie from the cookie jar and gets told not to do it again with a wagging finger, but no penalty, a doctor will just do the same exact thing if there is no penalty for the lawsuit or injuries that the doctor cases.

This is why the victim is so important in a medical malpractice case. The victim puts in perspective to the doctor that they made a mistake. A doctor during a medical malpractice trial can SEE what the mistake has done to a person—a human. What a family goes through. It can be something that is more than a number. Doctors will have to face their mistakes and how it affected a person. That will hopefully keep the good doctors but mistaken doctors honest to improve their practice to avoid similar problems in the future. To avoid hurting another person. To avoid more malpractice.