It’s my lawsuit and I’ll sue if I want to

Washington State’s Supreme Court just ruled that it is unconstitutional to require a 90-day waiting period for filing a lawsuit against a medical provider. In 2006 the state revamped its medical malpractice system and added the 90-day waiting period with the hope that disputes could be settled during this time and thus avoid going to court. The Washington Supreme Court believes, however, that the separation of powers between two arms of government, the legislative and judicial, is violated by this 90-day waiting period.

This is the second law rejected by the state’s Supreme Court. A law that required patients to obtain a certificate of merit from an expert before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit was found unconstitutional.

This was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 and is filed in the Legal, Patient Care categories.