Georgia high court considers tort reform law

A 75-year-old Marietta woman's case is now before the Georgia Supreme Court, which considered for the first time the constitutionality of the centerpiece of the state's 2005 tort reform law: caps on jury awards in medical malpractice cases. A lawyer for her surgeon's practice told the court that the Legislature properly imposed the caps to keep doctors from leaving the state in droves because their malpractice insurance premiums were too high. The woman's lawyer countered that the law punishes those who suffer the greatest malpractice injuries to the benefit of those who caused the most harm.