Opinion
ISMS: AMNews should have known key source aligned with trial lawyers
LETTER — Posted March 7, 2005
Regarding "Preventing lawsuits: Coalition pushes apologies and cash up-front" (Article, Feb. 7):
Those of us in the Illinois State Medical Society are nonplussed at how completely it appears that the wool was pulled over the eyes of a national, objective news outlet such as AMNews.
A central source for the story, Mr. Doug Wojcieszak, actually heads up Victims and Families United, an organization that news reports have widely identified as being backed by plaintiff attorney interests. The group is located in the Metro East St. Louis area of Illinois (notorious as a national "judicial hellhole"). Any credibility that affords him to forge a "middle-ground solution" to the litigation crisis, as he states in your story, completely escapes us.
In fact, the Illinois "I'm Sorry" proposal cited in the piece is part of a comprehensive ISMS reform package that the plaintiffs' bar vehemently opposed last year.
Suffice it to say that at the ISMS, "We're sorry" AMNews didn't get the straight story on this issue.
Kenneth J. Printen, MD, president, Illinois State Medical Society
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/03/07/edlt0307.htm.