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Letter: Law Protects Both Sides

State law of Kansas does not limit the amount of money that can be provided in a medical malpractice lawsuit to the victim and their lawyer despite a letter released on October 16, 2008 by Ronald Pope. The state considers the money that is awarded to medical malpractice victims as damages for loss of income and medical expenses incurred in the past and the ones that will be present in the future. Kansas residents that are injured by someone else, including a doctor, are eligible for unlimited compensation for all of their ‘economic’ losses related to the injury they suffered. The injury could have come in a car accident caused by someone else, getting hurt at the workplace or being injured by a doctor during an operation.

The pain and suffering referred to in Mr. Pope’s letter he also calls punitive damages, which they are not, and claims that victims are only entitled to $250,000 for those damages. This new finding by the Kansas state Legislature is that a larger chunk of the money awarded to a medical malpractice victim should go to the victim and not to their attorney for working their case. In some states, the attorney will receive 50 percent of the money awarded in the decision. For any individual involved in a medical malpractice suit, contact the law office of Michael Fattal today  for expert legal counsel.