By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.

Source: The New York Times     12/15/11

Within months of completing my training, I received the call that every doctor dreads.

“You’ve been named in a malpractice lawsuit,” said the hospital administrator on the other end of the line.

The family of a patient I had seen briefly a year before believed that a colleague’s decision not to operate hastened her demise. Now their lawyers, combing through the medical records, believed that a single sentence in my note brought that doctor’s decision into question. As a second or maybe even third opinion, I had written that the woman was a “possible candidate” for surgery.

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In a unanimous opinion released this morning, the Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled the states cap on punitive damages unconstitutional under the Arkansas Constitution. This cap was a significant piece of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003 that was passed by the 84th Arkansas General Assembly with more than 75 percent of the legislators voting for the reform bill.

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