July 15, 2005

Two big plaintiffs' lawyer victories in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the court invalidated the pain and suffering damages cap that the legislature had put on medical malpractice cases. The law violated equal protection under the state constitution.

Today, the court said that a child injured by eating lead paint could sue the paint manufacturers. According to the dissenting Justice Wilcox, this makes Wisconsin the only state that holds the manufacturers liable in such cases.

2 comments:

Bruce Hayden said...

Well, not being enamored by pain and suffering awards, I hope that your medical plan covers out of state medicine.

But throwing such out based on Equal Protection is interesting. I would think just the opposite - that since pain and suffering awards are such a crap shoot, providing such would be the EP violation, not the opposite.

sean said...

I presume that judges in Wisconsin are elected? And that the plaintiffs' bar supplies the bulk of the campaign contributions? This is why is could never be a law professor: I think that legal doctrine, as someone (Frost? Eliot?) said about the meaning of a poem, is a trick to hold the reader's attention while the real work goes on elsewhere.