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Healing elusive for those state hurt

Victims of state negligence can collect only up to $200,000 by suing, even if a jury awards more. Lawmakers can approve the rest but often don't.

By TAMARA LUSH
Published April 26, 2005

Minouche Noel was paralyzed as an infant after a botched surgery by state doctors.

Sherrill Aversa, a noted HIV researcher, was killed in a car crash near Tampa six years ago that was caused by a ladder flying off a state truck.

Wilton Dedge spent 22 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit.

All victims of state negligence. And they or their families have only one hope for compensation: the Florida Legislature.

By law, victims of state negligence can collect only as much as $200,000 in compensation, even when a jury concludes that justice requires more. Only the Legislature can authorize more.

It is a long and tedious process that critics say desperately needs reform.

"The system is designed to defeat injured people," said Lance Block, a lawyer who has won many multimillion-dollar claims bills in the Legislature over the years. "The government has a tremendous advantage when it comes to being held responsible for injuring people."

About two dozen claims bills are filed each year. Few are successful.

In Noel's case, a jury in 1999 awarded the teenager and her family $8.5-million in compensation for medical malpractice. Five years of pleading with the Legislature have gotten her family nowhere.

In the case of Aversa, the state Department of Transportation agreed to pay her husband, Dr. Lee Crandall, $800,000. He got $150,000 and is seeking the rest from legislators. He promised to use some of the money for a scholarship in his wife's name.

He, too, has gotten nowhere.

Some lawmakers say such bills merely line the pockets of lawyers and lobbyists.

"I think there's a group of people up here who won't vote for a claims bill, no matter what," said Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami.

Lawyers and lobbyists combined are limited to 25 percent of the claim.

Villalobos said cases like Noel's show the system isn't working.

"If the Legislature thinks it's bad public policy to do claims bills, then stop doing them," Villalobos said. "We're either going to do them or we're not. You shouldn't allow some with the right connections to go through and keep others. Justice ought to be blind."

But many say it's not justice that's blind, it's the lawmakers.

Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Alan Bense don't like claims bills because lawyers get too much money and success shouldn't depend on the clout of a lobbyist. So they likely will prevent any bills from getting voted on by their respective chambers. Advocates for the victims say legislators ought to be given a chance to decide for themselves.

"If you let the bills be heard, the process will work," said Patrick Bell, a lobbyist whose clients include Noel and Aversa's husband. "They politicize them more by not hearing them."

Block and others say one solution is to raise the $200,000 cap, which dates to 1973.

"The limits are grossly inadequate," Block said. "There's no increase for inflation. The state has grown tremendously since then. It really is time that the Legislature take a look at the process in general and increase the limits."

Those filing the claims bills are especially irked that they have gone through the legal process successfully, then need to essentially start over in the Legislature. A House and Senate special master investigates the claims and hears testimony like a judge.

"It's emotionally draining and kind of embarrassing sometimes," said Steven Hall, who was 12 when a Department of Transportation truck crashed into a vehicle his father was driving. Hall, 20, recalls going to a legislative committee hearing and seeing photos of him after the crash, his face swollen and bruised.

"The whole process has been very, very long. I'm tired of having to take time out of my personal life to do this."

Hall sustained multiple fractures to his face and underwent $45,000 of jaw and dental surgeries. He settled with the DOT for $588,000; he got $200,000 and has filed a claims bill for the rest.

Hall is self-conscious about his asymmetrical jaw and hopes to receive the money and undergo additional surgeries to correct the problem.

"It needs to come to an end; it's all I want," he said.

And because it is a political process, state agencies often lobby legislators not to pass claims bills.

Rep. John Quinones, a Kissimmee Republican and chairman of the House Claims Committee, said he has addressed some flaws in the claims process this year, starting with the Dedge case.

Dedge, a 43-year-old contractor, spent more than half his life in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence last year. Dedge was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in 1982 after being convicted of sexual battery, aggravated battery and burglary.

Lawyers have filed a claims bill on Dedge's behalf, seeking nearly $5-million as compensation for the 22 years he lost.

The House proposal offers victims of false imprisonment a choice: $200,000 or a package of nonmonetary services, including health care, free tuition at a state college or university and preference in state employment.

At least 19 states have laws to compensate people who are falsely imprisoned. Florida does not.

"Maybe we do need to study the claims process and see what can be done to expedite it," Quinones said.

--Tamara Lush can be reached at 727 893-8612 or lush@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 26, 2005, 01:04:06]