Letters.(Letter to the Editor)

MORE TORT HELL

I wrote the articles that Jay Nordlinger dismissed as "challengeable (at best) substantively . . ." in his Aug. 20 piece, "Welcome to 'Tort Hell.'" Had he asked, I would have gladly answered any questions about my research. For these articles, I pored over thousands of records filed, as required by law, with our Board of Medicine. These records offer the best look into West Virginia's medical- malpractice climate. Like it or not, they flatly contradict virtually everything alleged by those who blame the state's insurance rates on lawsuits. The records I examined are public; anyone can double-check my research. The findings have withstood every challenge proposed so far, and have been nicely supported by separate records kept by our Insurance Commission. But the findings have also proven inconvenient to some, so they are occasionally subjected to cavalier declarations born of reasoning flimsy and fallacious. With his column, Nordlinger joins a select few who resort to anecdotes in the face of research, anecdotes that are mostly of a conveniently vague nature.

Oh, and Nordlinger also explains that West Virginians (i.e., your fellow Americans) are lazy, lawsuit-happy numskulls unfit to serve as jurors. When he indulges in such silly stereotypes, Nordlinger reveals the true message of his article: If you repeat a lie often enough, people will think it must be true, facts be damned.

Lawrence Messina

Charleston Gazette

Charleston, W.V.

Jay Nordlinger replies: The Gazette is the dominant newspaper of West Virginia, and it is also its leading opponent of tort reform. Mr. Messina is the spearhead of that opposition. His work has indeed been challenged in West Virginia, and it appears to be contradicted by the "facts on the ground": Doctors are having to quit the state; they either cannot afford or cannot obtain liability insurance; they are perpetually afraid of lawsuits, altering their practices accordingly; recruitment into the state is impossible; insurers are refusing to write policies; patients are going without care.