"Is there a doctor in the house?"
There may be no one alive who has ever heard that question asked in real life in a public forum, but we’ve all heard it in old movies that feature scenes of someone fainting or suffering some other medical distress. Invariably, the question is answered by someone in the background that we hadn’t even noticed, who announces, “I’m a doctor” before stepping forward to offer assistance.
Apparently, that common scene from old movies used to be commonplace in real life, too, until Good Samaritan doctors – who graciously volunteered their services when they happened to be in a place where someone suddenly needed help – subsequently found themselves the targets of malicious lawsuits in reward for their interventions.
For that mean-spirited, self-serving suppression of once-common kindness and generosity, we can thank a certain breed of trial attorneys – such as the ones represented by the West Virginia Association for Justice, which is currently opposing legislative efforts to provide some legal immunity to hospitals and businesses that remain open to the public for the duration of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The vast majority of American citizens are grateful for these services, but you can bet whatever savings you have left at the end of this disruption-of-normal-life that more than one person is going to file a lawsuit seeking damages from the heroic do-gooders. Sad and sick, but true.
State Senate President Mitch Carmichael said lawmakers hope to enact some sort of tort reform “to help protect businesses, citizens, and health care providers who are doing what they can to help during this pandemic. We don’t want them to be opened up to meaningless lawsuits filed by litigation-loving plaintiffs attorneys.”
The immunity should be broad enough to cover essential businesses that “did everything they’re supposed to have done by taking the recommended precautions,” Carmichael says. “If these businesses remain open and viable to serve the public’s needs ... they need protection from possible lawsuits.”
Who, besides plaintiffs attorneys, can argue with that?
