If you live in Oklahoma and practice medicine or would like to see your favorite doctor stay in the state, it looks like there is good news ahead.  At least, it looks that way according to this story, “Coffee, Republicans will push for lawsuit reform.”

It seems that Oklahoma Senate Republicans are dedicated to pushing through caps and other changes that will make the state less dangerous for doctors and other businessmen.

A few things that seemed especially interesting in the article:

Coffee pointed to a survey from the Oklahoma Alliance of Physicians for Tort Reform showing lawsuit threats “caused nearly one-fifth of Oklahoma doctors to consider leaving the state, while 60 percent of doctors have stopped performing riskier procedures (like delivering babies). Lawsuits are also playing a role in the growing shortage of critical medical specialties here, such as obstetrics, especially in rural Oklahoma.”

Coffee supports pro-reform doctors, many of them Democrats, who say colleagues are relocating their practice to Texas, where the surge of requests for new medical licenses is so great that Lone Star bureaucrats are having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Finally, he observed, a State Chamber survey of Oklahoma businesses found that 87 percent of businesses believe our legal climate hurts job growth. And, 52 percent say they would consider moving their business out of state because of lawsuit threats.

I guess my main worry is, what sort of Supreme Court does the state have?