Personal injury lawyers still cringe when they recall 2004’s eye-catching television ads of doctors walking out of town along the highway, fleeing from high malpractice insurance costs.

A congressional study and a national consumer advocacy group found at the time that the health care industry had spent millions of dollars exaggerating the malpractice crisis in Nevada and elsewhere in the country. Doctors overall weren’t actually leaving Nevada at a high rate.

But the hard-hitting television campaign of five years ago, produced by influential Republican strategist Sig Rogich, helped persuade voters to overwhelmingly approve an industry-backed ballot initiative imposing a $350,000 cap on malpractice damages for pain and suffering.

via Attorneys hope to lift malpractice damages cap – Las Vegas Sun.