The Supreme Court of Florida recently ruled that the State’s caps on non-economic damages were unconstitutional in a medical malpractice and wrongful death case. North Carolina has a similar law, and should follow Florida’s lead by getting rid of our State’s unconstitutional caps on compensation for victims of preventable medical errors.
In Estate of McCall v. United States, __ Fla. __ (2014) (see link to opinion below), the Florida high Court held that these unconstitutional, arbitrary caps serve no purpose other than to punish injured people and increase insurance profits. The Court debunked the myth of a “crisis” for malpractice insurance companies, citing that between 2003 and 2010 (cap enacted in 2005) medical malpractice insurance companies increased their profits by more than 4,300% without passing any of their shockingly high profits on as savings to physicians or patients.
In North Carolina, like in Florida, the caps on medical malpractice damages are unconstitutional and wrong. Their only goal is higher profits for rich insurance companies who don’t pass the savings on to patients or physicians. North Carolina’s compensation caps strip us of our constitutional rights and shift the financial burden of preventable injuries and deaths to patients and their families who have already paid the ultimate price for medical negligence.
The Raleigh medical malpractice attorneys at Zaytoun Law Firm applaud the Florida Supreme Court for its ruling and urge our State’s legislators and judges to get rid of unconstitutional caps in North Carolina.
Here is a link to the McCall opinion:
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2014/sc11-1148.pdf
