Dear Keith ,

Yet again tomorrow, the House of Representatives will be voting on the same old tired proposal that would severely limit your clients' right to hold insurance companies, doctors and the makers of drugs and medical devices accountable when they cause injury or even death to innocent people.

There is nothing original about this proposal - House leaders even reserved the same bill number again this year, H.R. 5 - but in the re-constituted 109th Congress, the threat is very real. We need your help.

The alarming reality is that doctors are relentlessly lobbying their Members of Congress. It is critical that trial lawyers speak out today! Send a message to your Representative:

http://action.peopleoverprofits.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=27277

You can also call Congress at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative's office. Don't know who that is? Find out at:

http://action.peopleoverprofits.org/legDirectory/

The scope of H.R.5 is shockingly all-encompassing. It includes not only medical malpractice limitations but sweeping limitations, too, in product liability cases, in nursing home litigation, and in cases against insurance companies and HMOs.

While some doctors may be facing large price hikes for medical malpractice insurance, so-called "tort reform" is not the answer. Nothing in H.R. 5 would decrease premium costs or increase the availability of medical malpractice insurance. Even the American Insurance Association (AIA), a major insurance industry trade group, says lawmakers who enact "tort reform" should not expect insurance rates to drop.

To learn more about H.R. 5, go to:

http://www.atla.org/pressroom/FACTS/health/HR534.aspx

Here's what's at stake. The House will take up H.R. 5, a very similar version of the bills it passed in 2003 and 2004. The bill caps non-economic damages at $250,000. A one-size-fits-all cap on damages in medical malpractice cases would be an unconscionable setback for patients' rights. Among other things, the bill also limits contingent fees, reduces Statutes of Limitations, restricts expert testimony, caps punitive damages, heightens pleading standards for punitive damages, and eliminates joint liability for non-economic and economic damages. It allows evidence of collateral benefits and requires, at the request of any party, the periodic payment of damage awards. And all of these limitations would apply in medical malpractice cases, actions against nursing home facilities, against health insurers and HMOs, and in product liability cases against drug companies and medical device makers.

H.R. 5 removes all incentives for safety, eliminates punishment for misconduct and leaves the public's welfare in the hands of the drug industry. Hidden in the bill that is being falsely advertised as malpractice insurance relief for doctors are sweet product liability protections for the drug industry: Sweeping immunities that will make it impossible for people injured or killed by unsafe drugs - like Vioxx - to hold drug manufacturers accountable. Drug manufacturers are shielded from punitive damages because the bill requires an injured person to prove that a defendant intended to harm that particular person, an impossible standard to prove against a drug company that sells to millions of consumers. Even if a person is able to prove this, the bill still caps punitive damages at $250,000 or two times the amount of economic damages- no matter how egregious the misconduct.

It is essential to the future of this issue that we not let the House of Representatives increase the narrow margin by which it passed this bill in past years. 196 House Members voted against the bill in 2003 and 197 voted against it in 2004. That strong NO vote enabled us to build the necessary coalition to defeat the bill in the Senate, where we stopped it cold last year. Let's do that again.

Please, we need you to help us hold down the margin in the House! If only the doctors, insurers, and HMOs are speaking, theirs will be the only voices heard.

No one will stand up for the rights of our clients if we remain silent. You can help by contacting your Representative today. Tell them to VOTE NO on the health care liability bill when the House considers it tomorrow:

http://action.peopleoverprofits.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=27277

Sincerely,

Todd A. Smith
ATLA President