This morning, the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute urged the New Jersey Supreme Court to update the state’s out of date rules on the admissibility of expert opinion testimony during the court’s current rulemaking cycle.
This spring, a number of studies and surveys have drawn attention to an emerging problem in the healthcare industry - care that is dictated not by medical necessity, but by fear of litigation, in short, defensive medicine. As we all know, correlation is not causation, so more rigorous analysis is needed, but emerging evidence suggests that the main driver of the surge in unnecessary care is fear of litigation.
In 2014, doctors and insurers in the United States paid out over $3.89 billion dollars in medical malpractice cases, an increase of 4.4% over the previous year, and a continuation of the trend toward additional payouts after nearly a decade of decline. A closer look at the data reveals that the problem may not be rooted in quality of care, but in law and culture.
It’s time for a change to New Jersey’s medical liability system. Lawsuits are driving up the costs of liability insurance for physicians to the point that many are restricting their practices, moving out of state, or retiring. Other physicians are practicing defensive medicine in an effort to avoid being sued, which adds to the already high cost of healthcare, and drains resources out of the system.
We have been arguing for years that defendants need a mechanism for challenging class actions before the monetary pressure of the discovery phase forces them to settle cases of little or no merit, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. However, not all hope is lost. As Law360 reports, “A New Jersey appeals court Friday refused to revive class claims against automotive insurers… finding nothing wrong with a judge's decision to strike the class allegations before discovery.” The case is a good example of why New Jersey’s current law governing the right to appeal class certification decisions is flawed.
On Thursday, May 14, the New Jersey Assembly passed A4041, [...]
This week the New Jersey State Bar Association held its Annual Meeting and Convention in Atlantic City. NJCJI’s director of public affairs, Emily Kelchen, has been live-tweeting information of interest to NJCJI members throughout the event. A full report of the meeting, including a summary of Chief Justice Rabner’s state of the judiciary address will be included in next week’s newsletter.
Last Monday we held a policy teleforum on DeMarco v. Stoddard, a medical malpractice case that has the potential to upend New Jersey's malpractice insurance market. During the call, Shalom D. Stone of Brown Moskowitz & Kallen, the author of NJCJI's amicus brief in the case, provided an overview of the issues in the case and analysis of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s oral arguments, which were held on April 27.
A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of May 2-8.
Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America's entrepreneurs and small business owners. This Small Business Week, we’d like to draw your attention to the unique challenges small businesses face from litigation, and some of the reforms we have identified that would ease their burden.
