Wall Street Journal

Your editorial jab "Land of Lawyers" (Feb. 6) delivered to my home state is spot on. Honest Abe would be saddened by Illinois' current reputation for freewheeling lawsuits at the expense of our health-care resources.

A short time ago, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Illinois' medical-
liability reform law, based upon legal reasoning already rejected in five other states. Sadly, this latest bad decision will lead to fewer doctors practicing here and higher costs.

The reform law was working as intended. News accounts chronicled the return of high-risk medical specialists to one region that had a net loss of more than 100 physicians in the three years prior to reform. The state's largest liability insurance carrier reports that claims are down by almost a third since the law passed in 2005. Average liability insurance premiums have flattened or gone down for most physicians.

Now Illinois has reversed five years of progress, returning to a time of courtroom excess that led physicians into early retirement, forced them to give up high-risk procedures, and in many cases caused them to choose another state in which to practice medicine. Those who are still here, however, are committed to establishing fairness in our courts. We do not consider this setback the final word on Illinois' legal landscape. A few judges, no matter how powerful, can only stand in the way of the will and the welfare of the people of Illinois for so long.

James L. Milam, M.D.
President
Illinois State Medical Society
Chicago