Lindy, in defence of the ambulance chasing lawyers, they are only the cogs in the wheel. They don't make the law. They are just the lubrication engineers.
If judges and juries are awarding too much money in damages, then that's not the lawyer's fault.
NZ has an anything goes attitude and doctors here don't get sued. Medical misadventure covers the situation. It's called bad luck for the person who gets the wrong side of their body cut open. If doctors are grossly incompetent or negligent, there are various levels of criticism from the medical guild, but nothing too serious. Raping a crippled patient would get some more serious penalties, such as a monetary fine and suspension from practise for at least a while.
The USA system of suing the bastards has some merit.
I quite like it. If the community can't keep doctors under control by training, regulation or other controls, then it's fair enough that the community pays, via insurance for example, for the victims of the useless, incompetent, careless, negligent, malign, and derelict in duty.
NZ has a system where the victim suffers the consequences of bad luck, deemed to be an 'act of God', which begs the question as to whether God is really so nasty or whether doctors are God's corporeal manifestation [a common belief in the industry].
Medical malpractise in NZ has to be grossly incompetent to be deemed more than bad luck for the victim. I say turn the lawyers loose.
Mqurice |
