is asset protection needed in the state with malpractice cap
if there is a maximum cap on malpractice award in the state where the physician is practicing, should she or he do asset protection?

Anonymous user in Cincinnati, OH
October 6, 2009
Category: Asset Protection

Yes
For the sake of my answer I’m assuming 1) the questioner is a physician, 2) the Texas cap on malpractice recoveries will never be over turned or voted out, and 3) the questioner will never again practice medicine anywhere but Texas.

You need to re-read your Practice Doctor "For Doctors ONLY" .

As they correctly point out, a doctor is more likely to be sued for something other than medical malpractice. I have many doctor asset protection clients but I have more non-doctor asset protection clients.

I think the decision to put asset protection in place should be based on the amount of assets you have at risk and not on whether one area of attack has been capped. Plus, are you sure that cap is permanent or that you will always be covered be malpractice insurance.

Business deals, personal guarantees, employer/employee, divorce, remarrying, rental property, driving, the list of potential plaintiffs is a lot longer than just a doctor's patients. These are the types of things that drive my non-doctor asset protection clients to have asset protection.

It is not the fact that you practice medicine that makes you a target for law suits, it is the fact that you have assets available to pay a judgment that makes you a target. Asset protection is about making those assets not so available. The goal of asset protection is to never be sued in the first place but if sued to be able to settle quicker and for less.

Mason Salisbury, Esq.
Pelzer and Salisbury, LLC
Charleston, SC 29401

Mason Salisbury in Charleston, SC
Attorney - Asset Protection and Estate Planning - - Pelzer and Salisbury, LLC
April 7, 2010
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