MedMal Cases Misrepresented in Virginia's Largest Verdicts

Virginia Lawyers Weekly recently released their list of the largest Virginia Verdicts of 2009. The list had 21 verdicts (a verdict has to be at least $1 million to make the list) with 7 of them listed as medical malpractice verdicts. The malpractice verdicts ranked at 4, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 20 with the highest award among them listed at $7.4 million! That is quite a sum.

However, that $7.4 million is not what the plaintiff was awarded, simply what the jury thought the case was worth. Unfortunately, the jury's verdict was reduced to the applicable Virginia medical malpractice cap of $1.6 million (meaning the malpractice occurred between July 1, 2001 and July 1, 2002) making it only the 15th highest verdict in Virginia for 2009.

The story is the same for each of the other medical malpractice cases listed. In fact, if you factor in the caps applied to each medical malpractice verdict, only one case makes the top 10, a $1.85 million verdict, and it's ranked number 10. Combined, the million dollar medmal verdicts from Virginia in 2009 total $11.72 million, not even equal to the largest 2009 verdict in the state, a $13.5 million false advertising claim.

Food for thought the next time someone tells you that medical malpractice reform is needed. Unfortunately it's already here and has been serving to deny plaintiff's their just recovery since 1999.