The push is on for malpractice health courts

“But Ellington added that the current malpractice system deprives most injured patients of access to the courts, funnels as much as half an award to lawyers and experts, generates millions of dollars in defense costs, and can prolong awards for years.

The cost of that system is driving up the costs of medical care and limiting patient access to doctors, especially in rural areas, doctors contend.

The health court proposal drew an immediate rebuke from state trial lawyers, who said the possibility of negligence cases being decided by someone other than a jury raises strong constitutional questions.

‘If juries are able to be trusted to make life and death decisions in criminal cases, they are certainly able to be trusted to make decisions in medical malpractice cases,’ Jack Harris, executive director of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, said in an e-mail response.

Ellington and others said juries wouldn’t necessarily be stricken but they noted that special courts exist in worker injury cases and maritime and tax law.”