Mo. House Passes Med Mal Tort Reforms

The Missouri House of Representatives has passed a bill that would limit lawyers’ contingency fees, damages against emergency-room personnel, and require a signed affidavit from a board-certified physician in the same specialty as the defendant attesting to the facts of the case before it could proceed.

A similar bill is making its way through the Missouri Senate.

Lawyers’ contingency fees would be limited on a sliding scale. They could earn as much as 33 percent on the first $500,000 of a jury award, 28 percent of the next $500,000 and 15 percent on any amount greater than $1 million.

E.R. personnel would have limits of liability set at $150,000.