Birth Injury and Cerebral Palsy Attorneys Home

In 2003, Texas voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution limiting jury awards. Generically, it’s called “tort reform,” and the gist of the legislation places a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice awards. Advocates of Prop 12 claimed the amendment would cut the number of “frivolous” malpractice lawsuits and attract more doctors to Texas’ rural areas by reducing medical malpractice insurance rates and fostering a more physician-friendly atmosphere in Texas. Five years later, some of those predictions have come true. Insurance rates have indeed dropped by about 25 percent and Texas has many more doctors than it did in 2003. And medical malpractice lawsuits have been cut in half. But the same rural Texas counties that lacked a primary care physician or an ob/gyn in 2003 remain grossly under-served today. And, that 25 percent drop in insurance premiums doesn’t take into account the 150 percent rate increase Texas doctors suffered…
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