The Constitutional Attack on Virginia's Medical Malpractice Cap: Equal Protection and the Right to Jury Trial

Since its enactment, Virginia's statute limiting medical malpractice awards has spawned questions concerning its constitutionality. In response to the alleged insurance crisis of the 1970's, many state legislatures passed statutes designed to slow the rising costs of liability insurance. With such statutes already enacted in many jurisdictions, the insurance and health care industries claim that another malpractice insurance crisis exists today. While that may be true in some parts of the country and within some medical specialties, the problem originally was not as severe in the state of Virginia.

Today, it is still not as severe in Virginia as it is in other parts of the nation.