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Indiana's Supreme Count set to review Medical Malpractice Limits

Indiana's Supreme Court is set to review a challenge to Indiana's Medical Malpractice caps.

Timothy Plank who's wife Debra Plank died of an overlooked bowel obstruction was awarded an $8.5 million after winning his claim against Community Hospital north. The trial court granted Community’s motion to reduce the award to conform to the Medical Malpractice Act’s cap on damages and entered judgment in the reduced amount of $1.25 million.

On cross-appeals, the Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for an evidentiary hearing on Plank’s constitutional challenges to the statutory cap on damages.

“The purpose of caps is to keep people from having access to courts. Caps don’t take away bad cases, caps prevent those who have truly been injured from accessing compensation for their injury,” said Jim M. Perdue Jr., attorney with Houston-based Perdue Kidd & Vickery.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, issued a 2011 report which it found that medical liability caps make care less available and more expensive. They prevent patients from being fully compensated for damage caused by bad doctors. Public Citizen found that Insurance companies and doctors are the ones who most benefit from malpractice caps.

Limits in Florida and Missouri, and Indiana, could soon be struck down, depending on rulings expected soon out of those states’ supreme courts.