Posted by Bill Sandweg on 04 April 2016.

In Florida, if your adult child or widowed mom is killed by a drunk driver in an auto accident, you have the right to sue and to be compensated for the loss you have suffered.  No such luck if your adult child or widowed mom is killed by a drunk doctor.  Your loss doesn’t matter.  The doctor and hospital must be protected from greedy people like you.  You may go home and grieve but you may not file a medical malpractice lawsuit or make any attempt to seek justice for the death of your child or your parent.  Tough luck for you but that is the price that you must pay so that Florida doctors and hospitals and their insurers can sleep peacefully at night.  Here is a story about a devastated Florida mother who cannot understand why her loss does not count when everyone else’s does.

I wrote recently about the myth of frivolous medical malpractice claims.  Here is a link.  Frivolous medical malpractice claims is the usual justification offered by those who want to take away your rights in order to protect doctors, hospitals and their insurers.  In the case of the Florida law taking away the rights of Florida citizens, however, they don’t even pretend that they are motivated by the need to protect against frivolous claims.  It doesn’t matter how strong your claim is.  It doesn’t matter how many witnesses there are.  It doesn’t matter how badly the doctor or the hospital screwed things up.  It doesn’t matter if they were drunk or on drugs.  It doesn’t matter how deeply you were hurt by the loss of your child or your parent.  The only thing that matters is that your child or your parent not be married and not have any children or dependents under the age of 25.  So long as that is the case, the doctors, hospitals and their insurers get a free pass.  So long as that is the case, the life of your child or parent has no value.  “Thank you and have a nice day.  Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.”

The action of the Florida legislature shows the hypocrisy of the argument that tort “reform” is to protect society against frivolous claims.  That is simply not true.  If it were true, this Florida law would not exist.  I am sure you will be surprised to learn that tort “reform” is all about the money.  The doctors, the hospitals and their insurers are big contributors to those politicians who are willing to take away the rights of the public.  They are not donating to these politicians out of altruism.  They expect a return on their investment and they usually get it.

Don’t let what happened in Florida happen in Arizona!