Indiana Serious Injury Lawyer And The Truth About Caps

If you ever serve as a juror in Indiana and the case is a medical malpractice case, there is a cap on the wrong doers liability. Take, for instance, a  case involving a baby who suffers brain damage during birth, because of the negligence of the health care provider, and the cost of the medical care alone for the rest of the baby’s life totals 10 million dollars.  You and you fellow jurors return a verdict of 10 million dollars, knowing that this is just and fair compensation for the child.  You leave the Court house, not happy about what happened, but at least you know that the child will at least have proper medical care and that the health care provider’s medical malpractice insurance will be responsible for paying that fair amount to the child, right?  Wrong!!!  Indiana, medical malpractice recoveries are capped at $1,250,000.00 dollars.  So you ask, what happens after the $1,250,000.00 is paid?  More likely than not, the child will be forced to go on social security disability and the bills that exceed the $1,250,000.00 will be paid by the tax payer.  That’s right.  In this instance, the cap that protects the doctor’s medical malpractice insurance carrier, causes the rest of us to pay for his mistake.  I ask you, is that fair?

If you suffer serious personal injury in a car accident with a government employee, and you suffer paralysis that prevents you from working, you should not have to worry, as the government’s insurance company will be required to pay you fair compensation for your injuries right?  Wrong!!!  Government liability in Indiana is capped at $700,000.00 dollars.  So if your life time bills exceed that amount, you will be forced to go on social security and Medicare and the taxpayer is forced to pay for you medical bills.  As to recovering your lost wages, sorry, the Government is not responsible for that.

So you see, what your mother taught you does not apply to very select groups within our society.  The legislature has decided it knows better.  The legislature has decided that your mother was wrong when she taught you that if you cause harm to another you are fully responsible for making up for that harm.  The legislature has decided that personal responsibility applies to some but not all of us. I say this is not right.  I say that caps should be eliminated for everyone.  Everyone is responsible to fully make up for the harm they cause.  At the very least, Jurors should be told the truth about these caps at the time of trial.  At this time the jurors are told nothing about these caps.  As my father taught me, a half truth is a whole lie.