JACKSON - Insurance Commissioner George Dale said Tuesday few new medical malpractice policies are being written in Mississippi and a state pool for doctors and hospitals now has about 100 participants.
The state pool was created during a 2002 special session for doctors and medical facilities unable to get malpractice coverage anywhere else.
Dale, in an interview with the staff of The Associated Press, said out of the 18 companies that write some type of medical malpractice, he does not think any are out recruiting new business.
"A lot of the companies still perceive that Mississippi is not a good place to do business," Dale said.
He said tort reform, being pushed by Gov. Haley Barbour, is a volatile issue.
"I tell folks in medical malpractice that if my child was injured or killed by a doctor on drugs, or a doctor who had a drinking problem or a doctor that should have not been in the operating room, a $250,000 or $500,000 cap is not sufficient for me," Dale said.
He said the question is whether one doctor, who should not be practicing, should be allowed to affect insurance rates for everybody to the point that it affects health care for the populace.
"That's a very difficult question to answer," Dale said.
From September to November 2002, lawmakers met in an 83-day special session to wrangle over how to change Mississippi's civil justice system.
Laws that passed during that session took effect in January 2003. They limited damages for pain and suffering to $500,000 in medical malpractice cases, and capped punitive damages against businesses at $20 million or no more than 4 percent of net worth.
Now, business groups are clamoring for some of the same legal protection that doctors have received - and doctors are pushing for lower caps on damages awards.
The Senate has passed bills for additional caps only to have them die in the House.
Some legislators say the changes in place only for little over a year need more time to work.
Dale said the Mississippi court system may not be the level playing field many expect.
"In Mississippi, Lady Justice is peeping," he said, "because when court cases are being determined by racial makeup and/or location of juries, justice is not blind and that troubles me greatly."
Dale said a defense attorney should try to get his case heard in Rankin County, Lee County and other counties with small minority populations and generally conservative residents.
"If I were a plaintiff, I would have them in Jefferson, Claiborne, Holmes, Hinds and counties like that," Dale said.
Mississippi has gained a national reputation for multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements in high-profile suits involving the tobacco industry, asbestos, health maintenance organizations and drug companies.
It has been in predominantly black counties such as Claiborne and Jefferson from which some of the largest verdicts have come.
Trial lawyers in Mississippi consistently have said that the state's legal system works fine and that a handful of high-profile cases in recent years resulting in expensive resolutions isn't cause for massive tort reform.
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