Doctors, lawyers cool off after vote

After watching doctors and trial lawyers spend a record $14 million attacking each other for the past several months over dueling medical-malpractice initiatives, you can hardly blame voters for wanting to stay out of this fight.

But what now?

The resounding defeat Tuesday of the doctors' Initiative 330 and the lawyers' Initiative 336 puts the medical-malpractice issue back in Olympia's lap, where some leaders say they now have what amounts to a mandate for a legislative fix.

But Gov. Christine Gregoire said Wednesday that after such a nasty campaign between the doctors and lawyers, a "cooling off period" might be in order.

"If I can get them to come together and leave their weapons at the door and have a real discussion about what we need to do here, I'm willing to convene such a meeting," Gregoire said. "But when you've got that much [animosity] built up, I don't know if now's the time to have a constructive conversation."

With an estimated 500,000 mail-in ballots left to count statewide, I-330 was losing 55-45 percent and I-336 was losing by an even wider margin, 59-41 percent.

In recent months, the long-smoldering acrimony between doctors and trial lawyers exploded into voters' living rooms.

The doctors ran television ads and sent out hundreds of thousands of mailers depicting their opponents as "greedy" lawyers who are only interesting in chasing "jackpot" jury verdicts. The lawyers didn't attack doctors directly, but painted them as pawns of the insurance industry and even the Bush White House.

Things got so heated at one public forum that Tom Curry, spokesman for the doctors' campaign, asked his opponent, "Why don't we take this out on the sidewalk?"

A day after the election, however, leaders from both sides were talking in more conciliatory tones.

"Together, we should be able to reach a solution to these issues," said Jack Connelly, president of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association. "It's been done in other states, there's no reason it can't be done here."

Curry, meanwhile, said doctors are "driven pragmatists" and will continue to work for a solution to high malpractice-insurance costs.

Doctors and their allies — including hospitals, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry — say big jury verdicts are driving up insurance rates and forcing some physicians to quit performing risky procedures.

I-330 would have limited plaintiffs' attorney fees and capped pain-and-suffering awards in medical-malpractice cases. It also would have allowed providers to deny treatment to patients who refuse to sign agreements to resolve malpractice claims through arbitration rather than in court.

Lawyers, meanwhile, say the real problem is a lack of oversight of bad doctors and profit-hungry insurance companies. The lawyers' I-336 called for revoking the license of doctors who lost three malpractice verdicts in 10 years and requiring public hearings on malpractice-insurance rate increases.

Now that both measures are dead, House and Senate Democratic leaders say they will make another run at an alternate plan that they floated earlier this year.

"We very much acknowledge that there's a problem with malpractice insurance rates and there's things that can be done," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

The Democrats' proposal includes pieces from both of the initiatives, with a heavy emphasis on provisions aimed at improving patient safety. But it did not include any damage caps or limits on attorney fees, elements the doctors have said must be part of any compromise.

"The other side has to be willing, if we're going to get something done, to put something significant on the table ... not just window dressing," Curry said.

Connelly, however, made it clear that trial lawyers would continue to fight any push for damage caps.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who urged voters to reject both I-330 and I-336, said lawmakers should press forward with a medical-malpractice overhaul even if it doesn't win support from the doctors or lawyers.

House Judiciary Chairwoman Patricia Lantz agreed.

"If the two warring interest groups can't get together, well, that may be where legislative leadership comes into play," said Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, Pierce County.