Texas: No better place to abuse the mentally disabled.
You know those great malpractice reforms that Texas enacted to protect doctors?
When I talk with personal injury lawyers who practice outside Texas, they sometimes think I'm exaggerating when I tell them how hard it is for injured claimants to win a case here. No, I'm not exaggerating. My evidence is a decision rendered today by the Court of Appeals, Fifth District of Texas at Dallas.
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So we have a situation where a severely retarded person is scalded and beaten by an employee who is not a nurse or doctor, the employee pleads guilty to a crime and admits scalding and beating the retarded plaintiff, but the court holds that a doctor's testimony is still required to prove that nursing home employees should not in the normal course of business scald and beat residents, and that scalding and beating will indeed hurt. Incredible.
Source: Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog: Yes, It Really IS This Bad In Texas
As I've said before, tort reform is a scam that punishes people to protect profits. There's no reason whatsoever that a medical expert should be required to testify in a case such as this.
Cross-posted to TortDeform