Trial lawyers in bid to grab vics’ hauls

Trial lawyers are trying to slip in a bill during the waning days of the legislative session in Albany to fatten their fees in medicalmalpractice cases.

The measure would raise the current cap so that by 2021 the lawyer could collect the same 33 percent contingency fee that applies to other types of lawsuits.

At present, under a complicated formula, a lawyer who wins a $1 million medical-malpractice case can walk off with as much as $210,500. If the bill — which has some powerful sponsors — passes, that would eventually increase to $330,000.

“This is a gift to the trial lawyers,” said Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York. “The bill would directly take money from injured victims and give it the trial lawyers.”

The trade association representing New York City hospitals also slammed the legislation as helping lawyers, not injured patients.

“It’s bad enough that this bill would drastically worsen hospitals’ already sky-high medicalmalpractice costs, but it’s downright shameless that it doesn’t even pretend to help injured patients,” said Brian Conway, spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association. “Albany should emphatically reject it.”

The bill introduced Sunday by Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) and Assembly Judiciary Committee chair Helene Weinstein (DBrooklyn) — just in time to have it considered before the legislature adjourns this week.

DeFrancisco is a lawyer who is affiliated with a personal-injury law firm he founded, DeFrancisco & Fal- giatano. He received $31,000 in donations from trial lawyers’ political action committees over the past five years. DeFrancisco had no comment.

Weinstein received $14,000 from the trial lawyers lobby, state Board of Elections records show.

Lawyers currently can earn 30 percent of the first $250,000 recovered in medical-malpractice recoveries, 20 percent of the next $500,000, 15 percent of the following $250,000 and 10 percent of any amount over $1.25 million.

Under the bill, the 30 percent cut would be applied to the first $1 million recovered, 25 percent of the next $250,000 and 20 percent of any amount over $1.25 million in cases decided by the end of 2019.

The contingency fees then get bumped up even higher — 30 percent of the first $1.25 million and 25 percent of any amount over that — in cases decided before Dec. 31, 2020.

And after Dec. 31, 2020, lawyers could collect the contingency fee percentage allowed in all other litigation: 33 percent of recoveries.