Clearing record on editorial

THE Chronicle's May 22 editorial "Going to extremes" misstated the facts of medical malpractice reform in Texas. A correction published on May 24 got it wrong again.

This is what the law says: Every plaintiff in a Texas lawsuit can recover unlimited economic damages, which includes much more than the medical expenses referred to in your May 24 correction.

Economic damages include both past and future lost earning power, plus a range of quantifiable past and future expenses, such as the value of outside services to replace those the plaintiff is no longer able to perform, like maintaining the home and caring for the family.

Medical expenses are similarly available for a broad range of future costs including rehabilitation, in-home assistance and custodial care.

Damage awards to compensate for impaired future earning capacity alone frequently run into the millions of dollars, over and above medical and similar expenses, all as determined by the jury.

Non-economic damages — a subjective and hard to quantify category that includes pain and suffering — are limited to a $750,000 "stacked" cap, not a flat $250,000.

Since the reforms were enacted in 2003, nearly half of all medical malpractice suits have involved both a hospital and a physician, thus increasing the plaintiff's eligibility for non-economic damages from $250,000 to $500,000, in addition to unlimited economic damage recovery.

An accurate correction would also have noted that punitive damages — another kind of non-economic damages — may also be awarded, subject to much higher limits than those applicable in medical malpractice cases.