MTLA President’s Message:
Reflections on a Quick Year by Robert K. Jenner
Robert K. Jenner serves as President of MTLA.␣ He is also an Eagle Member of the President’s Club and a board member of MTLA PAC and is MTLA’s State Delegate to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.␣ His practice concentrates in pharmaceutical and mass tort liability, medical negligence, and serious personal injury litigation.␣ He is a partner in the Baltimore firm of Janet, Willoughby, Gershon, Getz & Jenner, LLC and may be reached at 410-653-3200 or by e-mail at:
rjenner@medlawlegalteam.com.
I presume that many former MTLA
presidents have wondered where the time goes. I was sworn in as President on June 7, 2002. And now, seemingly 15 min- utes later, I’m writing my last column for The Trial Reporter. I will resist the temp- tation to become too melancholy, although I would be remiss not to reflect upon the challenges facing all trial law- yers, and the outstanding responses and contributions from our Board of Gover- nors.
The day after MTLA’s First Annual
Convention, the MTLA Board met to set the agenda for the year. Energized and focused, this highly talented group began its mission, which included educating the public and its members, fund-raising, pro- viding membership services, and most critically, preparing for the onslaught of the legislative bad guys. No sooner did the Board get mobilized for the year, did the balance of power shift in Washing- ton. The tort deformers lost no time heating up the rhetoric and machinery to strip our clients of their rights and wipe our practices out of existence. H.R. 5, the so-called Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Health Care (HEALTH) Act, seeks to severely limit the ability of patients and other health care consumers to hold health care and medi- cal products providers accountable. Let’s face it, we all know the truth: • Recent increases in malpractice premi- ums are caused by market trends, not lawsuits. Insurance companies tend to reduce premiums when their invest- ment income yields high returns, and to increase premiums when investment income declines. In other words, when the stock market goes down, premi- ums go up.
• Insurance premiums reflect the under- lying risk. The real way to reduce insurance premiums is to reduce the risk— to prevent medical errors.
• The tort system promotes patient safety by holding doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes accountable for their mistakes. Dismantling the mechanism that protects patient safety
Spring 2003 Trial Reporter 3
will only increase the risk of injury by medical errors. Here at home, the enemies of the civil justice system wasted no time jumping on the bandwagon. Legislators submitted bills seeking to have Maryland endorse President Bush’s efforts to pass H.R. 5. The Legislative Committee reviewed and monitored over 100 bills and Committee members and our lobbyists testified on over 50 pieces of legislation. The list of potentially catastrophic bills included: a no pay-no play bill disallowing uninsured drivers the chance to recover non eco- nomic damages; a bill to give the legislature authority to set fees in workers compensation cases; a bill virtually man- dating structured payouts for economic damages; a bill to overturn the Court of Appeals decision regarding the statute of limitations for minors in medical malprac- tice cases; and harmful bills excluding hospitals and nursing homes from the Consumer Protection Act. MTLA sup- ported a host of positive legislative initiatives dealing with such issues as: extending the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases; continuing death benefits in workers comp cases; the Fam- ily Exclusion bill, our major focus, requiring insurers to offer this auto rider in excess of statutory minimums for household family members; and an addi- tur bill. How did MTLA respond to this cri-
sis? The answer, in short, was to gear up our lobbying and political efforts, fund-
raise, educate our members, and continue to provide the level of services our mem- bers need to forge victories for their clients.
This year our Fundraising Commit-
tee, once again under the inspired leadership of Parliamentarian David Albright, broke all of its previous fundraising records. More members than ever before joined MTLA’s Presidents’ Club or upgraded their participation lev- els. David started a new level of contribution – The Eagles level – in which members contribute $300 per month to- wards MTLA’s operating fund and PAC. For his efforts, David received MTLA’s Distinguished Service Award. The newly established Marketing Committee, co- chaired by Beth Frey, Steve Markey and yours truly, brought in $60,000 in rev- enue from corporate sponsors, which combined with the fund-raising efforts, ensured that our organization had the funds necessary to make our voices heard. Our PAC Chair Bruce Plaxen was in-
strumental in helping to identify, target and elect many new members of the Gen- eral Assembly and Bruce’s long hours attending fundraising events during the past election cycle will undoubtedly pro- duce many benefits for years to come. Within the hallowed halls of the An- napolis legislature, we are more than holding our own. It would be imprudent to overstate our successes, as we all know
(Continued on page 62)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64