Foes of capping trial lawyers' fees in malpractice cases say some doctors are thrusting petitions at their patients.
By Associated Press
Published May 11, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - A consumer group is airing ads critical of a constitutional amendment drive by doctors aimed at capping the fees patients' lawyers could receive in malpractice lawsuits.
The ads being run by the Consumer Federation of the Southeast are particularly critical of some physicians for passing out petitions to patients seeking to get the measure on the ballot.
"I do think you're intimidated" if you're a patient and asked to sign a petition in your doctor's office, the group's president, Walter Dartland, said Monday. "I think it's just a wrong place."
The ads also try to make a case against the proposed amendment, saying if attorneys' fees are limited in malpractice cases, some patients won't be able to hire a lawyer because attorneys won't take expensive cases without a chance for a decent payoff.
"The only access it's going to limit is for people with frivolous cases," responded Emily Turner, a spokeswoman for Citizens for a Fair Share, the group pushing for the amendment to limit what lawyers can charge in such cases. Plaintiffs' lawyers "will still get paid and they'll still get reimbursed for all their expenses."
The Florida Medical Association is backing the doctors' proposed amendment. Turner said the trade group isn't pressuring doctors to ask patients to sign petitions.
Doctors are expected to "use their professional judgment in their effort to gain signatures," she said.
For several years the FMA has battled malpractice lawyers over lawsuits that the doctors say cost them so much money to fight that many of their practices are threatened.
For their part, trial lawyers are pushing three proposed constitutional changes related to doctors. One would require revocation of the licenses of doctors repeatedly found to have committed malpractice. One would force hospitals and doctors to make more information about mistakes public. The third would require physicians to charge all patients the same price for the same treatment.
Dartland said trial lawyers as a group weren't paying for the Consumer Federation's ads, but said the group might seek funding from individual attorneys.
