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A Rush To Beat Tort Law Deadlines

By Mark Ballard
November 01, 2003

The legislative package of the American Medical Association aimed at limiting suits against doctors and hospitals has been unusually successful this year. Parts of it passed in more state legislatures in 2003 than in all previous years combined. But the states jumping aboard the medical liability “tort reform” bandwagon are learning what others already knew; As lawyers rush to beat deadlines, the legislation causes a surge in the suits that it was designed to stop.

Seven states — Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia – -have just adopted some of the tort law changes pushed by organized medicine. Most have gone into effect since mid-August. Interviews with court officials and news accounts suggest that attorneys in those states have been filing all the suits they can before the deadline.

In Houston, for example, Charles Bacarisse, clerk of the district court in Harris County, reported a 500% increase in the number of civil suit filings, some 2700 in the weeks before Sept. 1, when the new Texas laws became effective. Texas newspapers reported similar surges in Dallas and Corpus Christi, as did the media in Little Rock, AK; Orlando, FL; Charleston, WV; and Oklahoma City.

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