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PUBLIC DEBATE SOUGHT ON MALPRACTICE INSURANCE
Canton Repository
Friday, June 6, 2003
Columbus and Washington, D.C., aren't the only cities where debate over medical malpractice reform is raging.
Canton attorney Allen Schulman Jr. wants to talk about the issue with state legislators and a local doctor who publicly questioned the attorney's stance against damage caps for injury lawsuits.
Schulman bought a full-page ad in today's Repository challenging Dr. Peter DiGiacomo to debate "whenever and wherever the doctor chooses as long as the general public has the right to attend."
The impetus is a recent letter to the editor in which DiGiacomo defended the proposed limits as a way to head off rising malpractice insurance costs threatening his profession.
It was in response to a previous letter by Schulman.
An Ohio Senate judiciary committee has held several hearings as it considers a bill that would limit the amount of a money a person can win from an injury lawsuit.
Schulman, a lawyer for 30 years who specializes in injury litigation, countered with the ad.
He said he was "sick and tired of wealthy interests crying poor, insurance companies pitting doctors against lawyers knowing premiums will never be lowered" and "Republican legislators who know nothing about the judicial system."
Reached at his office Thursday, DiGiacomo said he isn't interested in a public debate. He simply wrote down some thoughts after a long week of delivering babies.
"I think (Schulman) got his feathers ruffled," DiGiacomo said.
"If he wants to be the bully on the block and try to bloody my nose in front of everybody, that's his prerogative."
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