Guinn v. Light

Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act, IC 16-9.5-1-1 et seq., was enacted in the face of a perceived crisis in the delivery of adequate medical care to the citizens of Indiana occasioned by allegedly skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums for health care providers and the withdrawal of a number of carriers from the field. It sought to reach that problem.

The basic scheme of the Act is to require that claims of medical malpractice be submitted to a medical review panel before they may be pursued in a court of law. IC 16-9.5-1-6,16-9.5-9-2.1 The review panel, consisting of one lawyer and three…