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Jackpot Awards On Medical Malpractice Crisis?

I recently read about a trial that took place in Montgomery County.  When I saw the amount of the jury verdict, it got me thinking about all this discussion we’ve been hearing lately about a medical malpractice crisis and runaway jury verdicts.  What the public is lead to believe by the insurance companies is that jurors cannot be trusted to give reasonable verdicts and that their awards amount to jackpot lottery winnings for injured malpractice victims.  Folks – the large jury award is highly unusual but is published in the newspaper and, therefore, we hear about it.  We don’t hear about the normal jury verdict in medical malpractice cases which are anything but a jackpot.

In the Montgomery County case, a 63 year old woman was treated in a hospital emergency room with classic complaints of a heart problem.  She was discharged with a diagnosis of abdominal symptoms.  She returned to the hospital the next day but died shortly thereafter of a fatal heart attack.  At the time of trial, only her adult children were in attendance.  Her husband had died shortly before the trial started.  The jury found that the emergency room doctor was 100% at fault.  What did they award her family for the death of their mother who was 63 years of age?   Did they get a jackpot lottery award like the insurance companies would have you believe?

The jury awarded the plaintiff’s family the sum of $100,000.00.  Under Pennsylvania law, damages in a death case are limited to pain and suffering, wage loss, and loss of services to the surviving family members.  What are our politicians doing about a court system that allows a life to be worth only $100,000?       Stephen M. Karp, Esquire