Judicial Hellholes Spurring Costly Trend toward More Giant-Sized Medical Liability Awards
Regular Judicial Hellholes readers won’t be surprised to know that California, Florida, New York and West Virginia were home to some of the most absurdly outsized (and costly to us all) medical liability verdicts since 2010.
According to the Claims Journal online, the “overall cost and frequency of so called $50 million plus “super losses” in the U.S. healthcare insurance sector are on the rise.”
The Claims Journal reports a study by specialist healthcare insurer Hiscox, showing that such “large losses keep on getting larger with juries in the last two years alone awarding more than $1 billion in total damages for just seven medical liability cases.” They are:
- March 2010 New York $60.9m Negligence at birth
- July 2010 California $670m Inadequate staff at assisted living facilities
- July 2010 Florida $114m Wrongful death at nursing home
- May 2011 Connecticut $58.6m Negligence at birth
- Aug 2011 West Va. $91.5m Nursing home negligence
- Oct 2011 Michigan $144m Negligence at birth
- Jan 2012 Florida $168m Brain damage following surgery
Of course, plaintiff-friendly thumbs on the scales of justice in these jurisdictions drive such ludicrous verdicts, and the ever higher costs they represent are ultimately passed on to future health care patients and their insurers.
Who says we don’t need federal medical liability reform?
