Opinion ID: 1787098
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Martin v. Richards

Text: ś 248. In Martin, this court cited a 1986 study by the U.S. Department of Justice purporting to show that few individuals receive noneconomic damages in excess of $1,000,000. Martin, 192 Wis. 2d at 203. The Martin court also considered other courts' statements of the average level of awards as of 1970, and as of 1980. Id. I do not dispute the accuracy of these 20 to 35-year old figures. ś 249. Nonetheless, the medical malpractice climate has changed in recent decades. ś 250. In 2003, a federal agency reported that [t]he number of payments of $1 million or more reported to the [National Practitioner Data Bank] exploded in the past 7 years, not only in AMA crisis states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but nationwide. [12] In more than five percent of all claims resulting in payment, the payout exceeds $1 million. [13] The maximum reported payout was $20,700,000. [14] Seven of the twenty highest verdicts in 2001 and 2002 were in medical malpractice cases. [15] In a recent Wisconsin case, a jury awarded noneconomic damages of $17.4 million. [16] ś 251. A substantial part of the huge awards are comprised of non-economic damages. Recent studies have concluded that non-economic damages comprise 77 percent of awards. [17] In Texas, the average judgment in medical malpractice cases is now $2.1 million; 70 percent of that figure, on the average, is noneconomic damages. [18] ś 252. Last term in the Maurin case, a jury awarded the Estate of Shay Leigh Maurin $550,000 in noneconomic damages for her pain and suffering before her death. The doctor's negligence in diagnosis occurred on March 6, 1996. Shay died on March 8, 1996, less than 48 hours later. Maurin, 274 Wis. 2d 28, śś 9, 11. During a substantial part of this time she was unconscious. The facts of the case are tragic and heart-wrenching. But the fact that a jury awarded $275,000 in pain and suffering damages for each day she lived undermines many of the arguments made by the majority.