On-Call System Can't Work Without Specialists to Call Palm Beach County has recently been considering a special on-call system to alleviate problems regarding the availability of specialists in emergency rooms. However, this system is likely to have little affect, writes Dr. Robert Brodner, because there is a fundamental "lack of manpower." "There are not enough specialists willing to take emergency calls to support [such a] system," he writes. And the primary reason for this shortage is medical liability exposure. "When you attempt to recruit a high-risk specialist, such as a neurosurgeon, medical liability is the dominant issue," says Dr. Brodner. To help relieve this problem, reforms "should be pursued vigorously in Florida." » article
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Common Good Publications Op-ed: Time for a Movement for Legal Reform
Philip K. Howard, The Atlantic, March 20, 2010
Philip K. Howard argues that “[m]odern law has severed people from their best judgment.” He relates that, in addition to America's schools and hospitals, Washington is so “paralyzed by the accretion of law” that even President Obama “is powerless in the face of [it]” (noting that an obsolete 1931 law “prevented the President from hiring thousands of people last year”). “Reviving personal initiative is impossible without basic legal overhaul,” Howard writes – but “neither political party in the US has even a glimmer of interest in this issue.” “What's needed here is a movement," he concludes. "People who believe the system is broken have to band together and force change upon a political system that seems content to preside over a status quo of slow suffocation.”
Click to view more op-eds Poll: National Voter Survey: Health Care Reform and the Legal System 2009
Clarus Research Group, September 10, 2009
A nationwide poll commissioned by Common Good and the Committee for Economic Development, and conducted by Clarus Research Group, reveals that 83% of American voters want Congress to address medical liability reform as part of comprehensive health care reform – and that 67% support the creation of special health courts.
Click to view more polls Speech: Testimony of Paul J. Barringer, III Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health
Paul Barringer, July 13, 2006
Testifying before the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Common Good General Counsel Paul Barringer outlined the key elements of the health court concept, and how health courts can improve medical justice for both patients and providers.
Click to view more speeches Resource binder: Elements of a System of Medical Justice Compiled for Common Good's forum on "Liability and Patient Care."
Click to view more resource binders Fact sheet: Trends in American Justice Click to view more fact sheets Other Sources  Book: Books by CG Chair Philip K. Howard
Read The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines our Freedom, by CG Chair Philip K. Howard. Also check out his national bestseller, The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America.
Click to view more books Link: Insurance Information Institute Click to view more links Study/report: Medical Malpractice Liability Crisis Meets Markets: Stress in Unexpected Places
Robert A. Berenson, Sylvia Kuo, Jessica H. May, September 2003
Click to view more studies/reports | 
