Opinion ID: 2163447
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27 provides:

Text: In any action for damages for personal injuries, wrongful death or property damage resulting from an alleged act of malpractice or negligence by a licensed person in his profession or occupation, the plaintiff shall, within 60 days following the date of filing of the answer to the complaint by the defendant, provide each defendant with an affidavit of an appropriate licensed person that there exists a reasonable probability that the care, skill or knowledge exercised or exhibited in the treatment, practice or work that is the subject of the complaint, fell outside acceptable professional or occupational standards or treatment practices. The court may grant no more than one additional period, not to exceed 60 days, to file the affidavit pursuant to this section, upon a finding of good cause. The purpose underlying the statute has been fully explicated in our recent decisions. Burns v. Belafsky, 166 N.J. 466, 474-75, 766 A. 2d 1095 (2001) and Cornblatt v. Barow, 153 N.J. 218, 242, 708 A. 2d 401 (1998). It was designed as a tort reform measure and requires a plaintiff in a malpractice case to make a threshold showing that the claims asserted are meritorious. It is designed to weed out frivolous lawsuits at an early stage and to allow meritorious cases to go forward. Cornblatt, supra, 153 N.J. at 242, 708 A. 2d 401. See generally Peter Verniero, Chief Counsel to the Governor, Report to the Governor on the Subject of Tort Reform (Sept. 13, 1994) (noting that [r]epresentatives of hospitals, medical professionals, and medical-malpractice insurers support[ed] the certificate-of-merit requirement as a way of weeding out meritless lawsuits (and of identifying truly culpable defendants)). Here we are faced with the issue of whether plaintiff's conduct before and after filing of the complaint either satisfied the Affidavit of Merit statute directly or complied with it substantially. Because different legal standards apply to various defendants, we will serially address the issues on the basis of the circumstances germaine to the various defendants.