By: Rusty Brooks
A new bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Nassau) and state Sen. Jamaal Bailey (D-Bronx), would boost the sliding scale of contingency fees that attorneys can collect from clients in such cases, typically filed against hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities, according to The New York Post.
Lavigne told The New York Post, “The measure makes it easier for lawyers to take these cases on,” said Lavine, noting the suits are often complex and expensive to work on”.
One of the largest verdicts ever awarded was when a Bronx jury awarded $120 million to a woman who suffered brain damage after being treated at several New York City Hospitals following a seizure.
Carl Campanile writes that “trade groups representing hospitals and companies said the bill — which is being pushed close to the end of Albany’s legislative session on June 2 — is just a money grab by trial lawyers and their allies.”
“With other self-enriching bills that trial lawyers push in Albany, they can at least make the cynical case that they also have their plaintiffs’ interests in mind, but not this one. This bill benefits trial lawyers and no one else,” said Brian Conway, spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association, which issued a memo opposing the bill.
The Greater New York Hospital Association cites data showing New York leads the nation with medical malpractice payouts totaling $37.04 per capita, with New Jersey a distant second at $28.92 per capita.
In medical malpractice cases, lawyers do not get paid upfront by the client but receive a sliding fee based on the sum reached for a settlement or verdict. The fees have not been changed since 1985, according to the lawmakers behind the bill.
The proposed legislation would allow lawyers to accept one-third of the first $500,000 recovered in medical-malpractice settlements or verdicts, up from the first $250,000 under the current statute. The scale would also be adjusted to 30% instead of 25% of the next $500,000; 25% instead of 20% off of the next $500,000 over $1 million and 20% instead of 15% of any amount over $1.5 million, according to The New York Post.
In 2013, BMJ Open performed a study in which they found that “failure to diagnose” accounted for the largest portion of medical malpractice claims brought against health professionals. Furthermore, the study found that the most common result of this negligence was death of the patient. The other most common categories of malpractice include negligent treatment and failure to warn.
