ALBANY – A bill to help victims of medical malpractice died for a second straight year in the state Legislature.
The Senate and Assembly ended their legislative sessions in the wee hours of Saturday morning without taking up Lavern’s Law, which would start the window to bring medical malpractice cases when an error is discovered by the patient, not when the mistake occurred as is current law.
The Republicans that control the Senate recently discussed the issue at length but couldn’t come to a consensus, a GOP official said.
The measure had a strong backe in Senate GOP Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco.
But it was strongly opposed by the deep-pocketed medical establishment, which has argued that many of the states that have similar measures in place also have caps on pain and suffering awards and limits on total damages.
The Assembly, which passed the bill last year, did not do so again this year, waiting instead to see what the Republicans would do.
