Missouri Injury Law Blog

In a previous entry I discussed the applicability of tort reform on medical malpractice actions in Missouri. See MISSOURI MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND WRONGFUL DEATH ENTRY

Specifically, I discussed a case I am handling where we filed the wrongful death case as a result of medical malpractice prior to Missouri Tort Reform which went into effect in August 2005. Based on discovery we added an additional party after the tort reform bill went into effect. The new defendant, a medical group named Southwest Medical Center, claimed that tort reform defenses should apply to them because they were added after tort reform.

As previously discussed, the Judge denied a change of venue motion asserted by the medical group holding that tort reform did not apply to their case because there was not a new cause of action and therefore the law at the time of the original filing applied.

I was waiting on an additional Order from the Court ruling on our Motion to Strike the Affirmative Defenses of the medical group. Just recently we received that Order and as expected the Judge Ordered that the medical group's affirmative defenses based on the new tort reform laws must be stricken from their pleadings.