The Supreme Court of Kentucky on Thursday decided that the Medical Review Panel (MRP) Act violates the Kentucky Constitution.

The MRP Act was enacted in 2017 by the Kentucky Legislature under Chapter 216C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. The Act created three-person medical review panels to evaluate proposed malpractice complaints against healthcare providers. The panels were given up to nine months to return an opinion. If no opinion was provided within that period, the complaint could be filed in court without review.

When challenged before a trial court in October 2017, the court found a number of violations of the Kentucky Constitution, including the equal protection guarantee under Sections 1, 2, and 3. The trial court’s decision was appealed by the state.

The Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision agreed with the result of the trial court, but focused instead on Section 14 of the constitution, which protects one’s right to a speedy trial. Chapter 216C was found to be an unacceptable deviation from this constitutional right. Specifically:

Instead of affording claimants the ability to choose the process of redress they wish at the time they wish to exercise it, Chapter 216C forecloses all immediate access to any system of justice unless the other side agrees. … [Immediate redress of] claims is a constitutional right that all claimants have, unless they choose to give it up; the government cannot take that right away.

Medical screening panel provisions have previously existed in more than 30 states in the US, but, due to repeals and invalidation, this number now stands at 16.