What is the South Carolina Tort Claims Act and why is it important to you?

The South Carolina Tort Claims Act dictates what sort of damages you can get against any state entity or federal entity for that matter specifically in South Carolina.

What is included in that category is going to be schools or hospitals in the medical malpractice context or any potential state building that you might be injured in a slip and fall. That would be for example, if you were injured at the Medical University of South Carolina.

These particular caps are going to come and play and it’s a product of Tort Reform and the number is 300,000. For example, a client that I worked with several years ago, fell at a school in Beaver County and she had a very significant injury and the unfortunate thing was it was a sort of injury that we could have recovered a considerable amount. She was a young woman and it was something that she was going to be living with for at least another 30 to 40 years.

But because of these particular caps, the only amount of money that we could actually get because it was against the state was $300,000. Now the significance of that is, is that because it’s $300,000, the only way that you can actually get the money is if you got a death claim.

So it essentially minimizes the injury if you have anything other than that. In this particular instance, the client was bedridden for the better part of three months because if she had moved incorrectly, she would have been paralyzed from the waist down.

Fortunately, we were able to recover $240,000 for her, which was a good recovery. But as you can see, because you’ve got the cap there, and the insurance adjuster is aware of it, it actually works against you in the context of negotiations.

Therefore, if you have been injured in any state entity, be it a medical university or you slipped and fell at the courthouse or wherever it may be, you are going to be dealing with a $300,000 cap regardless of what your injuries may be or how grievous they may be.

You need a lawyer to get the best result for you because they’re going to have knowledge of these caps and they’re going to be aware of it and they’re going to be able to walk the line that you’re not going to know as a layman.

If you have questions about the Tort Claims Act or anything else, contact the Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600 today.

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