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Attorneys: Injured would face doomsday scenario
One day, a child could lose both legs due to medical negligence, but because of Georgia's civil laws, couldn't find a lawyer to take his case. Or a stay-at-home mother could die due to a doctor's error, but the maximum her family could recover in noneconomic damages due to Georgia's medical malpractice laws would be $250,000. This is the gloomy doomsday scenario that trial lawyers predict if drastic changes proposed to Georgia's civil, personal injury and medical malpractice laws are passed by the 2005 General Assembly. Many lawyers believe the proposed tort reforms in a Senate bill would lower the quality of Georgia's justice system by restricting citizens' constitutional right to access the courts and to a jury trial. Legal changes could make it economically unfeasible for lawyers on contingency to take medical malpractice cases, lawyers say. "That's the great promise of the country: that everyone's individual rights are entitled to protection," said Rob Reinhardt Jr., president of the State Bar of Georgia and a Tifton lawyer. Across Georgia, some of the state's more than 30,000 lawyers are mobilizing for what they consider to be one of the biggest fights, not just for their profession, but for access to justice. According to Bill Clark, the chief lobbyist for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, his group will for the first time mount a public relations campaign to educate citizens about what tort reform means to them. [more]