## Facts

- Kentucky enacted the Medical Review Panel Act, KRS ch. 216C, requiring most medical-malpractice and malpractice-related claims against health care providers to be presented to a medical review panel before a lawsuit could be filed in Kentucky courts.
- The Act barred commencing an action in court until the claimant submitted a proposed complaint to a panel and the panel issued an opinion or a statutory exception applied.
- The panel’s opinion was nonbinding, but completion of panel review functioned as a mandatory gateway to filing suit.
- Ezra Claycomb, a minor, by his parent Tonya Claycomb, filed a declaratory judgment action challenging the Act, alleging it violated Section 14 of the Kentucky Constitution (open courts), which requires remedies “without sale, denial or delay.”
- The Franklin Circuit Court declared KRS ch. 216C unconstitutional on multiple grounds, including Section 14, and enjoined enforcement.
- The Cabinet for Health and Family Services, on behalf of the Commonwealth, appealed to the Supreme Court of Kentucky.

## Issues

1. Whether KRS ch. 216C’s mandatory pre-suit medical review panel requirement violates Ky. Const. § 14 by delaying access to courts for adjudication of common-law injury claims.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Kentucky affirmed the trial court.
- The Court held KRS ch. 216C violates Ky. Const. § 14 because it delays access to Kentucky courts for common-law malpractice and related claims.
- The injunction against enforcement of the Medical Review Panel Act remained in effect.

## Legal Principles

- Ky. Const. § 14 protects a substantive right of access to courts and a remedy for injury “by due course of law” administered “without sale, denial or delay.”
- The General Assembly may regulate procedure, but it may not impose a mandatory precondition that prevents filing common-law claims in court until completion of an extrajudicial process.
- A statutory scheme that interposes an across-the-board pre-suit review requirement, even if nonbinding, can violate the open-courts clause when it operates as a compulsory delay on initiating suit.

## Conclusion

The Kentucky Supreme Court invalidated KRS chapter 216C because requiring claimants to complete mandatory pre-suit medical review panel proceedings before filing medical-malpractice and related common-law claims imposes an unconstitutional delay on access to the courts under Section 14 of the Kentucky Constitution.


Commonwealth ex rel. Meier v. Claycomb, 566 S.W.3d 202 (Ky. 2018)