>>Is malpractice insurance a big issue in NZ ? I'm not familiar with NZ tort law, but I am trying to imagine how our lawyers could get rich on your system (and it is our lawyers - and their political minions that make our laws )
The "no fault" insurance scheme that includes medical misadventure covers everybody's costs and provides compensation, but you cannot also sue except for negligence- which is not easy to prove. If you do choose to sue and lose, the judge will routinely load a good chunk of the other party's legal costs onto you. This tends to reduce frivolous cases.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
