On January 28, 2023, Nick and Courtney accepted the Ted Horn Memorial Award at the CAALA Gala. This honors their outstanding service to the association and to the legal community. We are so proud of their work on the Fairness for Injured Patients Act and their dedication to human rights.
Courtney spoke at the event, “MICRA and laws that cap the value of life and quality of life damages are laws of inequity that not only curtail women’s rights but endanger their health. Women are dying, unnecessarily, in America. Women take four years longer than men to be diagnosed with over 770 diseases. Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack. Our maternal mortality rate is the highest of the developed countries. And what’s more--Black mothers die at a rate three times that of white women. These numbers don’t just reflect how women and people of color are treated in the healthcare industry, they are a direct reflection of how women are valued in the courtroom.
But this inequity is not limited to CAPS on damages, it extends to our classrooms, our state rooms, and, still, our profession.
This agreement with the CMA is a great beginning. The expansion of civil rights is progress. And, the work continues. In states across the country, caps designed to limit access to the courtroom and protect high donor insurance conglomerates are being introduced to legislation constantly. As we have seen geopolitically, democracy and human rights are fragile, and their protection cannot be limited to state lines or-- areas of practice.
Our relationships, here, in this room, will be the anchor and the driving force of positive creativity and right direction in our laws, our country, and our profession. How we value and protect equity , dignity, and humanity in our laws, in our offices, will impact how we value all people in our society, now, and for the next seven generations.”
