The Judiciary Review
Report from the Senate Judiciary Committee (D)
JAY COSTA JR., DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN
(717) 787-7683
March 2004
SPECIAL EDITION
Senate Adopts Damage Caps in Medical Malpractice Actions
Supreme Court Reports Medical Malpractice Filing and Verdict Information
I Senate Bill 9 damages from a licensed health by a vote of 21-29. Both Green-
Printer’s No. 1416 care facility and indexed both for leaf and Costa urged that it was
The Senate adopted a joint inflation. Further, Greenleaf’s important to provide certain
resolution and sent it to the amendment excepted the follow- exceptions in the language of the
House of Representatives that ing cases from such damages: constitution to insure fairness
would apply damage caps to I Injury resulting in death, and to fully inform the voters,
medical malpractice actions only. substantial increase in the risk who are ultimately responsible
After hours of debate, the Senate of death, serious and perma- for adopting damage caps, that
adopted the amendment offered nent impairment of an impor- important exceptions exist in
by Senator James Rhoades (R- tant bodily function, paralysis, such cases. Ultimately, Senator
blindness, or serious and Rhoades’ amendment was
Schuylkill) by a vote of 28-22.
permanent disfigurement. adopted as proposed by a vote of
The amendment would authorize
I Intentional concealment of the 28-22. Thereafter, the Senate
the General Assembly to enact
caps on non-economic damages injury by the health care adopted Senate Bill 9 by a vote of
in medical malpractice actions. professional. 30-20. The bill was sent to the
During the debate, the Senate I Surgery that was not reason- House of Representatives and
rejected an effort to expand able and necessary. referred to the House Judiciary
damage caps to all civil actions. I Reckless conduct or gross Committee Chaired by
The amendment offered by negligence. Representative Dennis O’Brien
Senator Jake Corman (R-Centre) (R-Philadelphia).
Greenleaf’s amendment was
was defeated by a vote of 23-27. defeated by a vote of 24-26.
This amendment had incorpor- After the introduction of the Supreme Court
ated the language of House Bill Rhoades amendment, Senator Jay Med/Mal Statistics
1326 that was adopted by the Costa (D-Allegheny), Democratic On Thursday, March 18, Chief
House of Representatives on June Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Justice of Pennsylvania Ralph J.
19, 2003 by a vote of 119-76. Committee, offered an amend- Cappy released preliminary data
Two amendments offered in ment to the Rhoades amendment regarding medical malpractice
the Senate attempted to provide that provided exceptions for the case filings and verdicts in Penn-
certain exceptions to the caps. following cases: sylvania’s Courts of Common
The first, offered by Senator I Reckless, willful or wanton Pleas. As noted in the Court’s
Stewart Greenleaf (R- misconduct. information, the collection and
Montgomery), Majority I Failure to diagnose that
release of the information “ful-
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary increases the risk of injury. fills a commitment for swift inter-
Committee, limited caps to governmental collaboration on
I Serious impairment of a
medical malpractice actions, liability reform.”
bodily function.
provided a floor of $350,000 for The preliminary information,
I Serious disfigurement.
non-economic damages from a published by the Supreme Court
licensed health care professional I Death. and the AOPC, detailed the
and $1,250,000 for non-economic This amendment was rejected (cont. on pg. 2)
The Judiciary Review Report from the Senate Judiciary Committee (D) Senator Jay Costa Jr., Democratic Chairman
(cont. from pg. 1)
number of medical malpractice ice actions filed during the period Pennsylvania's Supreme Court
filings in Pennsylvania Courts studied, 73% resulted in defense has taken over the past year to
between January 2000 and July verdicts. In addition, only 10.4% address concern over medical
2003 by county. Further, the or 119 cases resulted in verdicts malpractice liability reform. The
efforts of county court adminis- of more than $1 million. information further supports the
trators and staff produced In the information provided contention that the extensive
significant preliminary statistical to the General Assembly the reforms enacted by the General
informtion regarding verdicts in Supreme Court noted “In Assembly and adopted by the
those counties over the same time assembling the current data, Supreme Court in 2002, have had
period. counties were asked for mal- an immediate and dramatic affect
The preliminary findings show practice lawsuit claims filed in on medical malpractice litigation.
the number of filings in Philadel- the past four years and to moni- Additionally, the Pew Charit-
phia for 2003 was cut in half from tor new cases as they come in able Trust is completing a com-
a comparable period in 2002. under a directive that went out prehensive study of Pennsyl-
Further, in Allegheny County, from the chief justice in January. vania’s medical malpractice
case filings declined by more The move came at the urging of insurance crisis. One focus of the
than one-third over the same Gov. Ed Rendell who sought study is the link between non-
period. more information to address economic damages and the rising
Statewide, there was a 28.6 malpractice reforms with the costs of malpractice insurance for
percent decline in medical mal- General Assembly.” This informa- which little data has been made
practice filings in 2003 when tion is available at the courts available to lawmakers. The
compared to the previous three- website at www.courts.state.pa.us. information can be accessed
year period. Further, the Court’s As noted by the Court, data through the Pew website at
preliminary data demonstrates collection is just the latest in a www.pewtrusts.com.
that of the 1143 medical malpract- series of significant steps
Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Case Filings 2000-2003
Total 2000 2001 2002 2003 Percentage
Med/Mal Change
Case Filings State Senator
Allegheny 392 372 427 272 (-31.5) JAY COSTA JR.
Serving the 43rd District
Philadelphia 1085 1162 1365 577 (-52.1)
OFFICES TO SERVE YOU
Statewide 2686 2714 2957 1989 (-28.6) FOREST HILLS
1501 Ardmore Blvd. • Suite 403
Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Medical Malpractice Verdicts January 2000-July 2003 (412) 241-6690
CARRICK
Judicial Defense Verdicts Verdicts Verdicts Verdicts Verdicts Total 2306 Brownsville Road
District Verdicts Under $500,001 $1.0M $5M over Jury Pittsburgh, PA 15210
and % $500,000 - $1.0M - $5M - $10M $10M Verdict (412) 488-6111
and % and % and % and % and % Cases HOMESTEAD
314 East 8th Avenue
Allegheny 119 14 8 5 1 0 147 Homestead, PA 15120
(412) 565-7536
81% 9.5% 5.4% 3.4% 0.7% 0.0%
HARRISBURG
Philadelphia 241 54 29 58 16 9 407 Senate Box 203043
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3043
59.2% 13.3% 7.1% 14.3% 3.9% 2.2%
(717) 787-7683
Statewide 834 130 60 87 18 14 1143 E-MAIL: costa@pasenate.com
73.0% 11.4% 5.2% 7.6% 1.6% 1.2% WEB SITE: www.SenatorCosta.com