Recently, Georgia's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that non-economic damages could not be capped at $350,000, as the Georgia General Assembly outlined in 2005. Why? It violates the state's Constitution. Every Georgian has the right under the Constitution to a jury trial, but what good is a jury when it cannot decide how severe the injury or negligent the act that caused damages?

The tort reform drum has been beaten, primarily by conservatives, as a way to end "frivolous lawsuits" and get back at the evil trial lawyers and lower medical malpractice costs. In effect, Georgia's tort reform law gave insurance companies and the medical community a 'get out of jail free' card.

The case before the court was that of a Marietta woman, Betty Nestlehutt. She had a face-lift operation that went horribly wrong in 2006 and left her irreversibly disfigured. A jury awarded her and her husband a total of $1.265 million, but Dr. Harvey Cole, who performed the operation that left Nestlehutt with open wounds on her face, appealed, saying the award was more than the cap allowed (Nestlehutt's award included $900,000 for pain and suffering.)

The Georgia high court thought differently and rightly so, however, damage caps are only one aspect of the tort reform laws passed by the General Assembly. Emergency room doctors would still have to be proven high on meth or drunk out of their minds before opening themselves up to lawsuits. That section of the law was challenged and upheld by this same court 4-3.

The debate over tort reform dominated the General Assembly in 2004 and 2005. Doctors complained about high malpractice insurance rates; for some specialties as much as $200,000.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce said doctors would leave the state if tort reform wasn't enacted, but what they could not bring to the table was any data that proved high jury awards had anything to do with high insurance premiums. Rather, it was the insurance companies' plays on Wall Street looking for a higher return on investment that necessitated the high rates.

According to the Atlanta newspaper, Roy Vandiver, MAG Mutual's chairman - Georgia's largest doctor-owned insurance provider - said, "This is a setback for Georgia citizens seeking medical care and a defeat for Georgia's citizens."

Nothing could be further from the truth. This decision by the court opens the courthouse doors for legitimate redress for Georgia's citizens. Now, at least one of the get out of jail free cards has been eliminated.