COLUMBIA, S.C. - People who file medical malpractice lawsuits would be required to go through mediation before their cases could move through the court system under a bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Doctors complain that too frequently lawsuits that are filed against them are thrown out, leaving them with legal expenses, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia.

"Mediation earlier in the process eliminates some of the costs of defending frivolous claims," Harrison said.

Mediation brings all parties involved the lawsuit together to seek a possible solution. It costs no more than $125 an hour and can be handled in a day.

The requirement was an amendment to a Senate bill that had included mediation, but only said that it would occur sometime before a trial was held. The House panel's version specifically says mediation would be the first step. Mediation would not affect a person's ability to bring a lawsuit.

Under the Senate's version, "you could mediate the week before you went to trial," Harrison said. "We want that mediation to occur as soon as possible."

The bill, a key agenda item for Gov. Mark Sanford, now heads to the House floor with only a few changes in what the Senate passed last month.

The Judiciary Committee, however, agreed to keep the Senate version of the legislation that limits jury awards in medical malpractice lawsuits.

The measure puts a $350,000 cap on pain and suffering and other non-economic damages in lawsuits unless juries are convinced that a doctor's or hospital's actions were grossly negligent, willful, wanton, or reckless.

The House also panel did not change Senate language that lets people combine damages from a hospital, a doctor and another caregiver to reach a maximum of $1.1 million in non-economic damages.

Judiciary Committee members were divided on another issue in the Senate's version of the legislation that sets standards for expert witnesses. The bill requires affidavits showing the qualifications of an expert witness in lawsuits brought against people in 22 professions. That list of professions includes people far afield from health care: architects, lawyers, certified public accountants, land surveyors and engineers.

"Why are we slipping through protections for architects and attorneys?" asked Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston. Marriage and family therapists are "hardly on the level of a neurosurgeon," Altman said. He tried to cut those and other professions from the list. The bill isn't the right place to offer lawyers and other non-medical professionals protection, he said.

Altman's amendment failed with a 9-10 vote.

The Senate is expected to resume debate Wednesday on another bill to limit lawsuits. That legislation limits where lawsuits can be brought and cuts the length of time builders can be held liable for shoddy construction.