Special Session

By: Andrea Williams - Email

Updated: Mon 10:40 AM, Sep 23, 2002

For the past two weeks, negotiators for both the House and Senate have been working on proposals for medical malpractice reform. So far, the negotiators have not been able to reach an agreement.

Local representative Greg Snowden says the sticking point involves two main issues.

"They've agreed on a soft cap of $500,000 in medical malpractice actions. The difficulty now is that the house wants a hard cap of two million dollars. The Senate wants a hard cap of one million dollars. The hard cap would be the maximum a plaintiff could receive if the defendant were found liable. The soft cap is the minimum. Also, there's a sticking point on joint liability, which is somewhat complex. It involves the percentage of damages a defendant would have to pay in a civil action. It would be based on their degree of fault or percentage of fault," said Snowden.

The special session will resume Monday. So far, it has cost taxpayers almost $500,000.

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