An insurance trade group said they expect an appeal of a Georgia trial judge's ruling last week that found the state law capping awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases was unconstitutional.

The American Insurance Association said the ruling, handed down by Fulton Count Court Judge Marvin S. Arrington Sr. in Atlanta on April 28, which found the cap on non-economic damages in medical liability cases to be illegal, dealt “a potentially serious blow to Georgia's 2005 comprehensive tort reform law.”

Raymond G. Farmer, AIA's assistant vice president for the Southeast Region, said the tort reform law had brought “stability to the civil justice environment, and that has translated into stable medical liability premiums and greater access to medical care for Georgians. We hope and expect that the judge's order will be appealed.”

According to court filings, the case–Park v. Wellstar–was brought by Cheon Park and his wife, Lynne Park, against Wellstar Douglas Hospital in Douglasville, Ga., as well as doctors there after Mr. Park was left a quadriplegic following treatment for a back injury suffered in a 2006 fall from a ladder.

The couple challenged the legal limit for non-economic damages in medical liability actions, which restricts them to $350,000 for one defendant and $700,000 for multiple defendants.

Among its defenses, Wellstar argued that the issue was not ripe for a decision because the plaintiffs had not yet received a verdict in their favor, and filed to oppose a reduction. However, the judge found “there is a real and ripe controversy regarding the damage caps.”

He also wrote in his decision that he found “unconvincing the defendant's contention that non-economic damages had to be limited, as they contend, in order to allow the medical profession to function effectively.”

He said the law “does not limit recoveries against the specific defendants protected by the statute. Rather, the statute effectively puts substantial limitations on the rights of the poor and middle class to recovery, while leaving the right to virtually unlimited recoveries unimpeded for the wealthy.”

Judge Arrington said that under the caps, a disabled hedge fund manager, CEO “or such other person whose income is in the tens of millions of dollars has a claim under Georgia law that would dwarf the amount awarded in any case for pain and suffering.”

He added that “those wealthy, high-earning persons–whose right to economic recovery is subject to no limit–would be entitled to recover in excess of $100 million of lost earnings.”

Special Reports /

Georgia Malpractice Limits May Go On Appeal

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