Over 1.5 million Americans are injured each year due to preventable medical errors. These errors result in $17 billion in medical treatment which drives up the cost of medical care for everyone.

Nursing homes in Virginia are regulated by the Virginia Department of Health. For information on filing a complaint go to http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/olc/complaint/ or call 1-800-955-1819.

The Virginia Board of Medicine provides free information about every doctor licensed in Virginia including whether he or she has ever been disciplined or paid a medical malpractice claim within the past ten years.

We represent patients who suffer serious injuries when hospitals leave foreign objects in the body during surgery. Those patients are at risk for deadly infections, require unnecessary surgery, and they incur excessive medical bills.

Just yesterday, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned that state's medical malpractice "cap" because it limited compensation to injured persons.

Specifically, the Court ruled that the law violated the state Constitution's "separation of powers" clause, because it took away power that should rest solely with judges.

Eleven states now have abolished their medical malpractice caps. Patients in those states are now entitled to receive the full compensation that a judge or jury of their peers awards to them. In other states, including Virginia, the amount that a jury decides is fair compensation to an injured person is often automatically reduced by statute.

If you think Virginia should join states like Illinois in ending its restriction on a victim's right to recover, contact your delegate or state senator today.

If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of medical malpractice, contact Williamson & Lavecchia to preserve your right to justice.

In the last several days there have been encouraging stories in the media reporting that the U.S. Senate, as it mulls over the health care reform bill, is pushing hard to prevent health and medical malpractice insurance companies from fixing prices.
In 1945 Congress allowed insurers to become exempt from anti-trust regulations that guard against price-fixing. In a letter to President Obama, Senate leaders urged him to support the repeal of these exemptions, pointing out “These acts hurt consumers, drive up health care costs, and should be prohibited in the health insurance industry, as they are in virtually every other industry.”

As I've stated in previous blog posts, limiting injured persons' right to recover, otherwise known as "tort reform", bears little to no relation to a decrease in health costs through lowering medical malpractice premiums.