Here we go again— but wait, it is even worse!  Since our Missouri Supreme Court eliminated caps in injury malpractice cases, the insurance industry and its powerful allies in the Missouri legislature are presenting a bill to pass into law, a bill to eliminate entirely medical malpractice claims from the common law, but to instead, create a new legislative cause of action so that the legislature can then, on behalf of the medical profession, mandate whatever limitations on an injured person’s claim that they deem appropriate.  This proposed legislation is in direct conflict and a deviation from our historical system of jurisprudence, wherein this category of case always has been a part of the common law of our legal system, and the legislature has never been constitutionally permitted to interfere, because it is a basic violation of the separation of powers.  Even if there were judicial and constitutional precedent for this type of legislative action, it would be further unconstitutional for being “special legislation”, a denial of equal protection, a denial of our constitution’s “open courts” provision and most importantly a denial of the inviolate constitutional right to a trial by jury.
Whatever one’s stance might be with regard to the pursuit of legitimate medical negligence malpractice cases, such a law would be a profound deviation and exception to constitutional authority.  it is suggested that this legislation threat is undoubtedly a ploy to reenter a negotiation for reinstating caps on damages in a “trade off” for the legislature’s pursuit of complete obliteration of medical negligence-malpractice injury litigation.  Stay tuned!

Currently there is the ever increasing use of “arbitration” clauses in landlord leases, medical and hospital records, and contracts of various types.

An “arbitration” clause is one that provides that if the entity with whom you are dealing (landlord, hospital, doctor, etc.) becomes negligent and causes you a harm or injury to your person or property, that by the force of this clause you thereby agree that you will give up or waive your legal rights to pursue a case in court by a lawsuit, waive your right to a trial by jury, and that you would have agreed to submit your injury claim to an arbitrator.

The caution is, when entering any agreement, to read it carefully and “look before you leap” to make sure that by signing the document you would consciously and knowingly be giving up a recovery right that the law otherwise provides and thereby sacrificing the right that we all have as Americans—the all important right  to a trial by jury.