Medical Malpractice Cap on Damages in Kentucky Passes Senate: Lawyers Capped at Damages

Blog, Cases, Laws

NOW a medical malpractice cap I can agree with.  This time it is not on damages, but on lawyer’s fees!  But this is a good thing.  In Kentucky, there presently is no cap on attorneys fees.  Meaning that a lawyer representing a medical malpractice victim may take 40 or 50% of the verdict or settlement.

That’s a lot of money!  Especially when someone is seriously injured due to catastrophic injury.  If a victim of medical malpractice is going to have $100,000 a year in medical expenses for the rest of his or her life, and is expected to live another 20 years, that is $2 million.  If the lawyer takes 50% of that, the victim of medical malpractice will really only have $1 million left to live when he or she needs $2 million.  Not good!

This is why Kentucky has been working on a medical malpractice cap on damages and fees.  Initially it was scary because it looked like the fees would come out of the patient’s recovery.  But now they are moving to lower the amount of money that a lawyer can make.  This is a good thing, to a degree.

Under the proposed law, a Kentucky lawyer will now only be permitted to take 1/3 of the recovery, or 33%.

That sounds low, but that is HIGHER than New York’s medical malpractice!  And it is also on par with other personal injuries in New York, which allow a lawyer to take one-third.

Under New York’s law, the lawyer gets a sliding scale starting at 30%.  The more the lawyer recovers, the less money is earned.  The idea is to keep the money in the pocket of the victim of medical malpractice, to ensure that the victim is fully compensated.
