After the Dust Settles

In my last few posts, I covered several issues about tort reform and how those issues affect citizens’ access to the court system.  Also discussed was how the argument of tort reform is being posed by special interest groups as a possible means of reducing health care costs.  The bottom line is that there is no clear cut evidence that reducing the amount of damages that can be awarded in personal injury cases would indeed lower the cost of health care.  In fact, the end result would most likely be that those individuals’ care would wind up being covered by various state and federal agencies, thus shifting the burden to the taxpayers.

 

These types of suits can take many years to wind through the court system on appeal and during the appeals process anything can happen with regard to the final outcome. What we hear from the media is the most dramatic, first verdict, with little to no follow up. That said, this post is to report on some cases to determine whether the awards actually “stuck”.

 

• Some cases to review…
• Shoulder injury-pain & suffering award reduced
• Amputation injury-court slashes verdict for teen’s hand injury
• Back injury-reduction in pain & suffering damages in orthopedic and brain injury

In my opinion, this demonstrates that while our current system may be unwieldy, there are protections and follow up avenues in place.