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House hearing debates bill to let clinicians express sympathy without automatic evidentiary use

House Committee on Health and Human Services · May 1, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Supporters, including Care New England and the Rhode Island Medical Society, urged passage of HB 6210 to allow limited expressions of sympathy by clinicians without those statements being used against them in malpractice litigation; the trial bar objected that the change could disadvantage injured patients.

Representative Tansey introduced House Bill 6210 as a pared‑down apology‑law proposal that would limit the admissibility of expressions of sympathy or condolence after unanticipated clinical outcomes while preserving explicit admissions of liability as evidence.

Mary McBurney, a lawyer for Care New England, testified the bill is an evidentiary change that would not prevent meritorious malpractice claims because admissions of negligence would remain…

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