On April 19, 2021, the Louisiana Law Review published Michael Mims and Ricky Crisler’s article, Properly Limiting the Lost Chance Doctrine in Medical Malpractice Cases: A Practitioners’ Rejoinder, 81 La. L. Rev. 863 (2021). In the article, Mims and Crisler respond to recent calls to relax the burden of proof in “loss of a chance of survival” cases in Louisiana, arguing that the proposed loosened standards would improperly allow a plaintiff to recover full or near-full medical malpractice damages, including special damages, potentially far in excess of the $500,000 cap, even when a plaintiff cannot prove causation of a traditional injury. Mims and Crisler argue that the time has come for legislative clarification of the “lost chance” cause of action, which should involve either abolishing the doctrine altogether, or if not, then establishing clear requirements regarding the narrow circumstances in which the lost chance doctrine may be applied, and adopting a percentage probability approach for the calculation of damages. The full article is available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol81/iss3/8
