Monthly Archives: August 2004

From the Campaign Trail: John Drury Makes A Splash in Britt

Posted on August 15, 2004 by bfialindathieman

From the Campaign Trail: John Drury Makes A Splash in Britt A Report from Drury for Iowa Senate Another busy day on the campaign trail yesterday for the Drury Team at the National Hobo Convention in Britt.  The day started … Continue reading →

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Some Thoughts on Tort “Deform” in Iowa: An Eye-opening Essay by Andrew Smith

Posted on August 14, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Some Thoughts on Tort “Deform” in Iowa

An Eye-opening Essay by Andrew Smith, Democratic Candidate, Iowa House District 40

“This issue is so important to the citizens of Iowa and goes way beyond this one piece of legislation proposed by Rep. Horbach. The Enron scandal of the past couple years reminded me of the importance of a strong civil justice system. It reminded me that altering our civil justice system to favor large corporate interests erodes society’s ability to adequately deter wrongful conduct. It also reminded me how these so-called tort reform measures being proposed year after year by the Republican-controlled legislature come at the expense of the general public.”

–Andrew Smith


To learn more about Andrew Smith or to contribute to his campaign, go here.


My opponent, Rep. Lance Horbach (R), was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in November of 1997, by a mere 9 votes in one of the closest elections in Iowa history. In 2000, he sold his interest in a small furniture business he co-owned and joined a company outside the district he represents called “Independent Insurance,” in Marshalltown, Iowa. According to the company website, “Lance specializes in large account sales development.”

This past legislative session, Rep. Horbach was the floor manager in the Iowa House of Representatives of HF 2440, a bill aimed at capping non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. HF 2440, which almost all the Iowa House Democrats opposed and which Governor Vilsack vetoed would have capped non-economic damages in tort, contract, or other actions against a health care provider to $250,000 unless there was a finding of actual malice against the health care provider. Economic damages, or damages to compensate for past or future wage loss, were not capped under the bill. Essentially, what this means is that if you go in for surgery and subsequently develop a disability due to medical malpractice, you could still sue for purely economic damages such as health costs (related to the disability) and repayment of future money you cannot now earn because of your disability under HF 2440, but you could only sue under the cap for no more than $250,000 for any kind of non-economic or “quality of life” damage suffered due to the malpractice. As a result, the $250,000 cap proposed by Rep. Horbach would have limited recovery on a variety of serious and real damages to medical malpractice victims, including loss of ability to have children, loss of body function, loss of body parts, disfigurement, loss of consortium, and physical pain and suffering.

In my opinion, capping non-economic damages is a bad idea because it disproportionately harms children and elderly victims of malpractice, because they often have little or no economic losses. When children, women, seniors and minorities win malpractice lawsuits, a larger proportion of their compensation is often made up of non-economic damages than economic damages. Therefore, in states that cap non-economic damages, children, women, retirees and minorities usually receive significantly less compensation than white males for the exact same injury.

From the evidence and studies available, it appears that caps also fail to lower premiums in every state that has tried them. Trial lawyers, insurance companies, and doctors will continue to debate the effect of caps with study after study, but to me, there is a greater fundamental principle at stake that makes these studies less important, and that is the constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury.

The right to have justice determined by a fair and impartial jury of one's peers goes to the heart of our system of government, and whether to limit this power of the jury to determine justice is much more than a mere economic question – it is a question of whom do we trust.

By arbitrarily capping non-economic damages, Rep. Horbach et al. are essentially saying that they don't believe Iowa juries can be fair, deliberate and careful in their decisions. They are essentially saying that Iowa juries are out of control and their power needs to be limited. But unlike Lance Horbach, I trust Iowa's juries more than I trust the Iowa legislature.

Trusting Iowa Juries:  The data available seems to suggest that my trust in Iowa juries is well founded. Even the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce found in a recent state liability study from March of this year that Iowa had the fourth best jury system in the nation. The study also found that Iowa ranked first in jury fairness and fourth best in jury predictability. This study appears to confirm that Iowa juries are already extremely conservative, fair and business friendly even without arbitrary limits being imposed on their power.
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Bush ‘Needs a Miracle’ to Win

Posted on August 14, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Bush 'Needs a Miracle' to Win Capitol Hill Blue George W. Bush bet his presidency on Iraq and is losing the bet, political analyst Larry Sabato said over the weekend. “He really will need a miracle to win, and the … Continue reading →

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Kerry Slams Bush’s Idea for a National Sales Tax

Posted on August 14, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Kerry Slams Bush's Idea for a National Sales Tax MercuryNews.com MIDDLE CLASS WOULD FEEL BURDEN John Kerry said Thursday that Bush's musing about a national sales tax is an insult to financially struggling voters and would amount to “one of … Continue reading →

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Will Ferrell’s Campaign Ad Parody

Posted on August 14, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Will Ferrell's Campaign Ad Parody Watch Will Ferrell of Saturday Night Live do his Gee Dubya impersonation in a great campaign ad parody produced by ACT. “pResidenting is haaaaarrrrrrrd.” It's called Straight Talk! from White House West in Crawford, Texas. … Continue reading →

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Kerry/Edwards ‘No Objection’ To Missouri Gay Marriage Ban

Posted on August 13, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Kerry/Edwards 'No Objection' To Missouri Gay Marriage Ban 365gay.com (Cape Girardeau, Missouri) Senator John Edwards, campaigning [last week] in Cape Girardeau, said he and running mate John Kerry have “no objection” to [last] week's vote in Missouri to amend the … Continue reading →

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The Counterpoint: Deficit Distortions

Posted on August 13, 2004 by bfialindathieman

The Counterpoint: Deficit Distortions Iowa's Ted Remington Responds to Sinclair Broadcasting There’s no way to respond to the most recent “Point” without going line by line. So here we go (“The Point” is in italics; “The Counterpoint” is in Roman … Continue reading →

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Dave Franker: You Gotta Love This Guy!

Posted on August 13, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Dave Franker: You Gotta Love This Guy! Look at this listing from the DFIA Events Calendar: Dave Franker discussion – Church and State Dave Franker discusses “Separation of Church and State” before a Diverse group of Bible Christians, Atheists, Muslims, … Continue reading →

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DFIA Gets Noticed by The Mothership

Posted on August 13, 2004 by bfialindathieman

DFIA Gets Noticed by The Mothership In case you missed it, yesterday morning Democracy for Iowa was featured on Blog for America, the blog of Gov. Dean's organization, Democracy for America. The article seemed to be well received, and folks … Continue reading →

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Vilsack Proposes Sweeping Education Changes

Posted on August 12, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Vilsack Proposes Sweeping Education Changes Quad-City Times DES MOINES — Gov. Tom Vilsack outlined a series of sweeping education reform objectives Tuesday while warning that Iowa is on the brink of losing its lofty national reputation unless it embraces big … Continue reading →

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