Despite receiving overwhelming bipartisan support from the Assembly, sponsoring from the majority of the State Senate, and endorsement from New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomono, a bill that would have changed New York’s statute of limitations on medical malpractice will never come up for a final vote. Instead, the bill, named Lavern’s Law, was shot down by the Senate majority leader, John J. Flannagan. As a result, victims of medical malpractice in New York will continue to suffer.

Lavern’s Law and the Statute of Limitations on Medical Malpractice Suits

Lavern’s Law was named after Lavern Wilson, a Brooklyn woman who died from a curable form of lung cancer. Doctors at Kings County Hospital had found a suspicious mass during an X-ray three years prior to her death, but never told her about it. And, because New York’s statute of limitations only gives victims two-and-a-half years from the date a mistake occurs to file a lawsuit, no action was ever taken against the negligent physicians.