As Brett Norman reports for Politico, the everlasting heated exchange between the Republicans and the Democrats is likely to cause any further efforts at so-called tort reform to stall out - one side blames trial lawyers for "out-of-control" medical malpractice lawsuits, while the other side blames the profit motive inherent in running an insurance company. A tort reform bill supported by the Republicans is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Medical Malpractice: No Dollar Value for Pain and Suffering?
Walter Olson, writing for the Cato Institute, argues that pain and suffering caused by medical malpractice is worth not one single penny. Were it not for what we have today in our civil justice system, Olson argues, pain and suffering wouldn't even enter into the equation, in large part because it's so difficult to measure the value of pain and suffering in any given case.