Opinion ID: 1822880
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act

Text: In 1975, the Louisiana Legislature, in response to a perceived medical malpractice crisis, enacted the Medical Malpractice Act. [5] Under the Act, a private health care provider, by taking specified steps, can become qualified for entitlement to certain limitations not available to other tort defendants. The primary limiting provisions available to private health care providers are the maximum amount of damages and the mandatory pre-suit review by a medical review panel, along with the special prescriptive and peremptive periods for malpractice actions provided by La.Rev. Stat. 9:5628. [6] Since all of the limiting provisions applicable to qualified health care providers are special legislation in derogation of the rights of tort victims, these provisions are all strictly construed. Sewell v. Doctors Hosp., 600 So.2d 577, 578 (La.1992). Moreover, these special provisions apply only to malpractice, as defined in the Act, and any other liability of the health care provider is governed by general tort law. [7]