Political Quotes

“The McConnell medical malpractice amendment does the following: It limits punitive damages. It limits punitive damages to two times the sum of what are called compensatory damages. Again, this gets sort of technical. We talk about economic damages and noneconomic damages. It allows punitive damages in those cases where the award has been proven by clear evidence and by convincing evidence. I mentioned attorney fees. I am critical of that because I don't understand in this day and time why personal injury trial lawyers walk away with so much money that has been awarded to the person who has been injured. But it does limit attorney fees. The McConnell amendment places very modest limits on attorney's contingency fees and medical malpractice cases. Specifically, the amendment allows personal injury lawyers to collect 33 percent, or a third, of a $150,000 award, and about $25 percent of the award on all amounts above $150,000. Again, that is pretty modest from my standpoint. The fact that an award to somebody who has been injured is $150,000, it was malpractice, and the fact that a trial lawyer will take away a third of that for their pocket, again, to me--that is what is in the amendment--that is an improvement over today.”