So doctors are going on strike to protest soaring malpractice awards and sky-high insurance premiums. The problem? Juries simply are awarding too much and entertaining frivilous claims. The solution? Cap awards. Well, that’s addressing the sympton, not the root cause. Law, and life in general, is too complicated for the average idiot in a jury pool. Some evidence? When you click on Texas in the interactive flash graphic, this is what it says:
Texas: The governor has declared malpractice insurance an emergency issue and is pushing a cap of $250,000 on pain-and-suffering damages in malpractice trials … Some regions, such as the Mexican border area, are known for high jury awards and have doctor shortages.
So the poorest & least educated area gives out the highest jury awards. In the hands of an educated rational citizenry the jury system is a marvel. But as what is defined as “educated” keeps shifting upward and onward along with the complexity of life-the citizenry is not keeping up.
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