TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida voters this month approved a three-strikes law unlike any other state’s – a measure aimed not at killers and thieves but at doctors who foul up.
The newly approved amendment to the Florida Constitution would automatically revoke the medical license of any doctor hit with three malpractice judgments. The law is backed by doctors’ foremost antagonists – lawyers – and the ramifications could be huge.
Legal experts say the measure could let loose a flood of malpractice suits. Doctors say it will scare some physicians away from Florida while forcing others to reach quick malpractice settlements to avoid a “strike” against them.
“It has branded the state as probably the most unfriendly state for physicians,” said Robert Yelverton, a Tampa doctor.
The three-strikes law is just one salvo in a fierce battle between doctors and trial lawyers that is playing out across the country and in Congress.
Doctors this year put their own malpractice measure on the ballot that limits how much of a malpractice award an attorney can take as a fee. There are already such limits, but the amendment, which also passed, further reduces the lawyer’s percentage.
Doctors claim that with less chance for a big payday, lawyers will be more selective about which cases they take and will perhaps avoid frivolous ones.
Lester Brickman, a professor of legal ethics at the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York, said the lawyers “trumped the doctors” with the three-strikes amendment, because lawyers will rush to sue in hopes doctors will settle to avoid a “strike” on their record.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
