This one means something personal to me. Tommy Malone of Atlanta, Georgia is the best lawyer I know. He is a long time personal friend, a man who has mentored me, chuckled at some of my “out there” theories and co-counseled cases with me. His son, Adam Malone, may be the finest “young lawyer” in America. Adam has the combination of character, intelligence and sincerity that if he wanted to run for President, he would be a serious contender. He will someday have the position I now hold as Chair of the Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group.
I first saw the video of the catastrophic ruin a greedy doctor made of this woman’s face last summer at our national convention. My paralegal Jayne, who sat next to me while we watched, it has asked me about how the appeal has come out, a dozen times since. Here the problem wasn’t that a jury wasn’t favorable to Adam’s client. The reason for the appeal was that the law, put in to assure that all doctors didn’t leave the State of Georgia (how ridiculous is that to even say) had limited her right to recover for this horrible disfigurement, drastically reducing the verdict. The Georgia Supreme Court has said that was wrong and ruled the cap on damages unconstitutional. In this case there may be the coming to justice that will forever put a stop to artificial restraints on what victims of malpractice and other wrongdoing can recover.
With this action, Georgia has become the latest state to throw out caps on awards in medical malpractice suits. In this case, Betty Nestlehutt, who is 75 now, was horribly disfigured from a botched facelift. http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/state-high-court-overturns-392119.html?printArticle=y
If you watch the video, you will see the injustice on capping this wrongdoing. http://www.georgiawatch.org There is no way that Georgia’s $350,000 limit on noneconomic malpractice damages could be considered adequate payment for her ordeal. It’s particularly heart-wrenching to watch Nestlehutt’s spouse try to carefully apply some kind of bandages to her wounds, as she flinches in pain.
In fact, a jury had found that she was entitled to $1.265 million in damages – a verdict that the George Supreme Court upheld, leading to the overturning of the state’s cap on malpractice awards.
Nestlehutt, who was in the real estate business with her husband in Marietta, Ga., decided to get a facelift in 2006. Her physician convinced her to get a long list of procedures, including the facelift. But after the surgery, Nestlehutt developed raw, open wounds on her face.
Nestlehutt’s face remained scarred, and the video says she is embarrassed to be seen now and doesn’t like to go out.
On Monday Georgia’s highest court ruled on Nestlehutt’s case, finding that the state’s $350,000 limit on noneconomic damages, such as a plaintiff’s pain and suffering, from malpractice was in violation of the Georgia constitution, which guarantees the right to a jury trial.
In the high court’s unanimous ruling, Georgia Chief Justice Carol Hunstein wrote that the state’s 2005 limit on damages “clearly nullifies the jury’s findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury’s basic function…The very existence of the caps, in any amount, is violative of the right to a jury by trial.”
Last month the Illinois Supreme Court scrapped the state’s $500,000 cap on malpractice damages against doctors and $1 million cap for hospitals, saying that the limits were unconstitutional. Roughly two dozen state now have caps on malpractice damages.
Georgia was limiting malpractice damages to $350,000 against physicians and $1 million against health-care providers.
In Nestlehutt’s case, a jury awarded her $115,000 for past and future medical care; and $1.15 million to her and her husband for noneconomic damages, with $900,000 of that for the woman’s pain and suffering.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Harvey “Chip” Cole had appealed the jury verdict, based on the state’s malpractice cap.
The real credit in this case must go to Adam Malone. Rather than declining this case because of the cap, he saw it as just the right case to prove in undeniable ways the injustice of the cap. He advocated in a special way unique to who he is and changed the law of Georgia and perhaps the law of the land.
Adam, I am proud to know you.
