Law Current Event

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Business Law Current Event Article Analysis I. ________________________________________ January 24, 2013 Despite Counsel, Victim Is Hindered by Tort Laws By BECCA AARONSON SAN ANTONIO — When Connie Spears arrived at a Christus Santa Rosa hospital emergency room in 2010 with severe leg pain, she told medical staff members about her history of blood clots. Doctors sent her home with a far less serious diagnosis. Days later, swollen and delusional, Ms. Spears was taken by ambulance to another hospital where doctors found a severe clot and extensive tissue damage. With her life on the line, they amputated both of her legs above the knee. Nearly three years later, Ms. Spears contends that she is a victim not only…show more content…
Spears said the laws obstructed her ability to find a malpractice lawyer and forced a judge to order her to pay thousands of dollars to cover some defendants’ legal bills. Her lawyers plan to file a motion that challenges the laws’ constitutionality. “How can that law be?” Ms. Spears asked. “Maybe the law was too loose before, but they went way too far the other way.” Tort reform proponents say that such restrictions are the only way to curb frivolous lawsuits against health care providers and that they have drawn more medical professionals to a state with exploding population growth. “Our purpose had never been to have a procedural hurdle,” said Mike Hull, a lawyer for the pro-tort-reform Texas Alliance for Patient Access. “It had been to have the plaintiffs really get the case reviewed.” For two years, Ms. Spears struggled to obtain legal representation, because several lawyers said they feared her case did not meet Texas’ new negligence standards. Justin Williams, a Corpus Christi lawyer who eventually took the case, said, “Her life has basically been ruined by all of this, and there was just no way I could turn her
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