All of these reasons need to be addressed, including (especially) the unbounded litigation environment created by New Mexico’s Medical Malpractice Act. But these changes will have only a marginal effect unless we add balance to our Medical Malpractice Act. After taking a deep dive into medical malpractice these last several months, looking at blue states with similar values to ours, I concluded that our litigation environment is out of alignment with similar states. Medical malpractice laws provide compensation to patients injured through medical error. • In Colorado, a judge can allow punitive damages to be included in a complaint, only after discovery has been completed.