I thought medical malpractice law couldn’t possibly get any worse. This morning I went to law school.
On Friday I found out that a family member of a former patient has filed a complaint against me. The patient died in 2004. Since there is a 1 year statute of limitations in Louisiana for malpractice suits, this did not seem possible. I should not just now be hearing about this. So I contacted my insurance company.
As it turns out, in Louisiana there is a law that says that if you want to file a medical malpractice suit you must pay $100 per defendant. This law was put into place to keep plaintiffs from doing what they had been doing in the past – suing 25 doctors at once for a single incident. Since the plaintiffs have to ante up for each doctor, it cuts down on the number of accused doctors. Once the plaintiff files the complaint, the law says the plaintiff has 45 days to pay the money. If the money is not paid, the claim is invalid.
Unfortunately, this law has created a fascinating loophole in the law. Fascinating if you are an attorney. If you are a doctor, better words would be abusive, immoral, evil, destructive, egregious, disgusting, repulsive, or infuriating.
The fun started when this 45-day limit was challenged in court. A Louisiana judge, in a stunning display of the intellectual gifts that propelled him to such a distinguished position, decided that the state office that accepts the claims does not have the legal authority to invalidate a claim. After the 45-day time limit expires, since the office cannot close out the claim, the claim passes into a legal limbo. The law says the claim should be invalid, but the court ruling says the claim cannot be invalidated. In practical terms this means is that a plaintiff can file a claim, not pay the $100, and the state office must keep the claim open forever. Any time the plaintiff feels like it, he or she can stumble into the door, write a check for $100 and reopen the case. This whole ridiculous mess means that the statute of limitations in Louisiana medical malpractice does not apply to cases where the plaintiff files the complaint and does not pay the fee. In theory, I could die 50 years from now and the plaintiff could pay the $100, activate the claim, and sue my estate or my heirs. No joke.
If the plaintiff in this case decides to pay the money and the case is honored in court, I am seriously thinking about turning in my Louisiana medical license. I have no intention of ever practicing medicine again under a system where a plaintiff can wait an indefinite period of time after the statute of limitations has expired to go ahead with a lawsuit.
Obscene is the final word I can find for it. Where is my right to a fair and speedy trial and to due process under the law? Do I have any rights at all? Anything? Am I mistaken in thinking I am an American citizen?
What perplexes me the most about the American legal system is how differently the criminal and civil courts operate. In criminal court, the accused is given every right and every benefit of the doubt. A criminal case will be thrown out over any violation of the rights of the accused. In civil court, it is the complete opposite. The accusers have every right and every benefit of the doubt. The accused gets nothing except presumption of guilt.