Why This Is Important The Senate voted overwhelmingly April 28 to pass a House bill that extends the lawsuit protection. Under the bill, cases brought against hospital workers covered by sovereign immunity would be limited to damages of $200,000 per incident. (An unrelated law raises the cap to $300,000 on Oct. 1.) Because Shands physicians were already public workers and protected by the law, lawyers have been loath to bring suit against the Jacksonville hospital. The Legislature's actions will only make it more difficult. It's difficult, if not impossible, for a victim of malpractice to bring a lawsuit against a physician covered by sovereign immunity, and now it's being applied to nurses. Another criticism of sovereign immunity is that it gives those hospitals a competitive advantage over those that don't get the immunity. Reducing and capping lawsuit awards should not provide protection for those who can routinely cause or participate in lack of care and medical mistakes that can be serious or deadly. How many millions will it cost taxpayers to pay lawyers to defend this utterly useless and idiotic piece of excrement legislation?? Opponents of the bill have expressed concern that hospital staff may not perform as carefully as they should if immunity is extended. Victims of medical negligence at hospitals with sovereign immunity will have little or no recourse for covering their damages if the bill is signed. This is because medical negligence claims are extremely complex and expensive to litigate. If a claimant must spend $50,000 on expert witnesses to bring the claim, by the time he or she has paid such expenses and lawyers, there is nothing left. As a result, there is no incentive for such victims to bring a claim. I know of no attorneys in Jacksonville who are currently willing to take cases against the doctors at Shands.