Those are actually two seperate issues. Civil suits are entirely decided by juries, he wants laws limiting which cases can actually reach a jury trial and how much money juries can seek from defendants. When Bush talks about judicial activism and activist judges, he's talking about federal judges and federal court of appeals using judicial review to "make law from the bench".

Because the government knows we'd just blow it on booze and Sir Mixalot ring tones for our cell phone.

And if that's going to cut ridiculous medical costs, I'm all for it and then some.

Ruthys looks better:)

I agree that problem needs to be addressed, but I thought John Kerry had a much better system for combating it.

Wasn'ts Bush's plan to put a 250,000 cap on maximum payouts for medical lawsuits? I don't know about you, but if a surgeon showed up drunk and severed my spinal cord...250,000 wouldn't exactly have me jumping for joy. (Thats an admittedly extreme example)

It's a tricky issue. On one hand high insurance rates due to malpractice suits are a big reason medical costs are as high as they are. On the other hand though, you have to be careful not to take away the rights of the patient. Mistakes as extreme as leaving surgical tools in a patient by mistake and operating/treating the wrong patient are more common than one might think. I'd want to be able to sue if that happened to me.

It *has* happened to me, and I/my parents (young at the time) decided not to sue.. They had switched my X-rays with someone else's, put my under anethesia, nearly underwent the procedure before they figured it out. I'm kinda meh on the issue. I think a 250,000 max payout is plenty for just about anything. In the long run people need to suck it up and think of other people for a change. Your 20,000,000 dollar settlement just raised health care costs, congratulations, selfish person.

Freelancer: It sucks that happened...but it doesn't sound like there was any permanent damage. I'm not sure a jury would have awarded you much if anything in that case. I wouldn't have sued there either...just never gone to that hospital again.

But if you couldn't walk for the rest of your life...and you were a construction worker just there to get his appendix out or something...is 250,000...the cost of a nice house, really worth much?



malpractice suits contribute to increased insurance rates, but they are FAR from the root cause of our increased premiums.

Thank you, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, you economic mastermind of a President. *sarcasm*.

Plicat: Judicial activism is essentially legislating from the bench. This is something I do not support. Judges are there to interpret the law not make it.

I wouldn't think that any sort of frivilous lawsuit control would happen under Kerry. His running mate was a trial lawyer. They thrive on lawsuits. But yeah. Something has to be done about frivilous lawsuits. You getting millions of dollars because you did something stupid or you made a mountain out of mole-hills, shows that there is definitely something wrong. I applaud Freelancer for not suing for $35M.

Here, in cali, under current prices, $250,000 would probably buy you a packing crate on the sidewalk in front of some rich guy's house, but not a nice house of your own.

Move to some god-forsaken town in the middle of nowhere in Nevada and you'll be set for life! With about 75% of that money leftover for inheritance.

Or in Indiana. At least there, you have trees:D

Of course I do but I'm not sure how that relates to this discussion.

Rock on

HAHAHA. that was so great.

Not much would.

hahaha.