If there was ever any question about the extent of the power wielded by Maryland's Insurance companies, one need look no further than Maryland's non-economic damages cap.
At its most basic level the " cap" discriminates against those personal injury or medical malpractice plaintiffs who are most catastrophically injured as the maximum award that can be sustained is strictly limited no matter what damages are awarded by the judge or jury.
What does this mean? Well first of all the jurors are not informed of this reality. So using as an example a recent malpractice verdict in Howard County, Maryland, thought to be the largest in that county's history, the jurors awards will be reduced to a fraction of their intended award.
The jury awarded over seven million dollars to the estate of a 23-year-old and his surviving parents. The decedent's mother was awarded $3.75 million dollars and his father was awarded $3.0 million dollars. While this author has not seen the verdict sheet, it is inevitable that the overwhelmng bulk of each of these awards was non-economic in nature and thus subject to the non-economic damages cap.
This means that despite the jurors lengthy and attentive service it is probable that the trial judge would be compelled by Maryland law to reduce the verdict to less than one third of the actual verdict.
So who benefits from this? Obviously the insurers and perhaps their wealthy healthcare provider clients. Who loses? The parents of a beloved twenty three year old college student.
For more go to: https://www.maryland-law.com/blog/maryland-injury-case-damages-cap-is-punishment.cfm?q=damages%20cap
