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16 N. Ky. L. Rev. 481 (1988-1989)
The Structured Judgment as an Alternative to Caps on Personal Injury Damages

handle is hein.journals/nkenlr16 and id is 493 raw text is: THE STRUCTURED JUDGMENT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CAPS ON PERSONAL INJURY DAMAGES Henry M. Brown* I. INTRODUCTION Since the early 1970s, volumes have been written on the malpractice insurance crisis with its ever-increasing insurance rates, which allegedly could make medical care for the public unavailable. The insurance companies have argued that the num- ber of malpractice suits and the size of plaintiffs' awards have forced the cost of premiums to a prohibitively high level. Many insurance companies and physicians insist that the biggest factor in bringing about the crisis was the traditional tort system with its long delays, expenses, and speculative recoveries.1 It has been argued that the public lacks both the wherewithal and the pa- tience to bear the economic burden of our present tort law. Plaintiffs' lawyers contend that the crisis is illusory and that physicians and insurance companies are attempting to win the sympathy of legislators to assure the passage of special-interest legislation.2 Some commentators have blamed the increase in insurance rates on speculative insurance company investments that have resulted in the need for higher premium costs.3 The traditional tort system has long served the social policy of compensating a person injured through the fault of another while discouraging conduct that is unacceptable to society., The public seems to desire that this policy continue while, at the * Assistant Seminole County Attorney, Longwood, Fla. J.D. 1987, University of Louis- vile; former Supreme Court clerk to Justice Roy N. Vance. The article is dedicated to the author's wife, Alia, and children from whom the time to write and pursue professional interests is taken. 1. Reynolds, Legal Fight Brews Over Florida Tort Amendment, NAT'L. L.J., Sept. 3, 1984. 2. Cunningham & Lane, Malpractice: The llusory Crisis, 54 FLA. B.J. 114 (1980). 3. Tyler, Medical Malpractice Statutes: Special Protection For A Privileged Few?, 12 N. KY. L. REv. 295 (1985).