By Spencer Hunt
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - Doctors looking for relief from their skyrocketing insurance rates may soon see new limits and restrictions on malpractice lawsuits, courtesy of the Ohio General Assembly.

The House voted 61-34 Friday to advance a proposal that would limit the money juries award plaintiffs in medical complaints to $1 million.

The bill would also place new restrictions on when a lawsuit could be filed and order state insurance officials to come up with a proposal that could dip into Ohioans' wallets to help pay for these lawsuits.

Republican supporters of the bill said it was vital to help keep doctors in business in Ohio. They say out-of-control jury verdicts and settlements in malpractice cases are driving up doctors' premiums 20 to 60 percent a year.

"We are heading toward a health care meltdown in Ohio," said Rep. Gregory Jolivette, R-Hamilton. "What we're doing today is a first ray of hope."

The bill now goes to the Senate, where it's expected to pass. "I think we'll vote it out Tuesday," said Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale.

Gov. Bob Taft is expected to quickly sign the bill.

The bill passed over the objections of several Democrats, who called it little more than a bailout for insurance company executives who failed to do their jobs.

They said doctors' insurance rates wouldn't drop and that malpractice victims would suffer.

"Doctors who are leaving Ohio because their rates are too high are still going to leave because their rates are too high," said Rep. Edward Jerse, D-Euclid. "What we're doing today is a misguided effort that will hurt individuals in Ohio."

The bill would limit jury awards for noneconomic damages, commonly called pain and suffering, to $500,000 for noncatastrophic injuries and $1 million in cases where patients suffer serious, permanent harm.

Those caps would be lower in cases in which a plaintiff has no spouse or other relative who can claim he or she has suffered, too.

Awards in these single-plaintiff cases would fall to $350,000 for nonpermanent injuries and $500,000 for patients who suffer catastrophic losses.

Lawyers whose fees exceed these caps would have to get an OK from a probate court judge.

The bill also would limit the time in which patients could file suits to within four years of their injuries.

Exceptions to the four-year limit would include children under 18, patients who were declared incompetent and people who discover a medical instrument left in their bodies more than four years after their surgeries. People who discover their injuries in the fourth year would have up to a year to file their suits.

The plan would also order the Ohio Department of Insurance to come up with a plan that would create a state funded pool of money that could be used to help pay malpractice verdicts.

Although House Republicans believe a state-run patients compensation fund could help lower doctors' insurance rates, Senate Republicans balked at the cost.

Mr. Finan said he opposed the plan because it could tax Ohio residents through their health and automobile insurance policies.

Mr. Finan said he doesn't have a problem with the compensation plan as long as lawmakers aren't required to vote on it. "They can study it all they want," Mr. Finan said. "They can study it forever, for all I care."

With the plan now on track to become law, the next question is whether it will pass a likely constitutional challenge in state courts. Two previous attempts to impose lawsuit limits, the most recent in 1996, were summarily rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court.

State Rep. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland, said he expects a court to put a restraining order on the new lawsuit limits almost as soon as the bill becomes law. With the re-election of conservative Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, and the election of Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor to the Ohio Supreme Court, Republicans are optimistic the balance of power on the court has swung their way.

E-mail shunt@enquirer.com