Practical info and news about Medical Malpractice, Litigation, Standards of Care, Using Expert Medical Consultants & Witnesses, and other Med/Law issues.

Medical malpractice is an act or omission by a health care provider which deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community and which causes injury to the patient.

With the advent of managed health care, medical malpractice law is once again seizing the public's attention. The prime targets in the new malpractice litigation are often not only doctors, but also the corporations that pay them.

Medical malpractice insurance covers doctors and other professionals in the medical field for liability claims arising from their treatment of patients. The mission of the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) is to improve public understanding of insurance - what it does and how it works. For more than 40 years, the I.I.I. has provided definitive insurance information. Today, the I.I.I. is recognized by the media, governments, regulatory organizations, universities and the public as a primary source of information, analysis and referral concerning insurance.

In recent years, medical malpractice law and insurance have become popular topics for debate in Washington, DC and around the country. This report provides an overview of the issues surrounding medical malpractice law, including the legal changes that states have made over the past thirty years in response to periodic concerns about rising medical malpractice costs; some newer proposals for changing medical malpractice law; and trend data for malpractice claims.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are the latest daunting tasks medical and health care officers are facing today. Here are some details and other information about medical malpractice lawsuits. The description of medical malpractice is simple enough. Any act or failure to act by a health care professional diminishing or deviating the accepted standards of services and practices of the medical community is termed as medical malpractice. These actions can cause injury to the patient. Medical malpractice can also be termed as professional negligence on part of the health care professional.

Medical malpractice litigation is exploding. Egged on by greedy lawyers, plaintiffs sue at the drop of a hat. Juries award eye-popping sums to undeserving claimants, leaving doctors, hospitals, and their insurance companies no choice but to pay huge ransoms for release from the clutches of the so-called “civil justice” system. Medical malpractice litigation is a sick joke, a roulette game rigged so that plaintiffs and their lawyers’ numbers come up all too often, and doctors and the honest people who pay in the end always lose.

Medical malpractice cases have been the source of much debate surrounding tort reform. Doctors have staged protests and walkouts, refusing to practice without the security that their legal costs will not be prohibitive. Plaintiffs' lawyers tell the stories of medical procedures gone horribly wrong and try to help the general public understand the vast cost of medical malpractice to people's lives. Experts disagree on the reality and impact of medical malpractice cases and the extent of medical malpractice itself.

Medical malpractice tort law has always been maintained at the state level. All states have at least some laws governing medical liability lawsuits. The vast majority of states have statutes of limitation of two years for standard medical malpractice claims. Over half of the states have limits on damages awards. Almost all states have eliminated joint and several liability in malpractice lawsuits, and many states have established limits on attorney fees.

Of the 1,156 medical malpractice trials litigated in the Nation’s 75 most populous counties during 2001, most were disposed of by jury trial. In an estimated 9 out of 10 medical malpractice trials, the alleged harm involved either a permanent injury or a death claim.

In 2004, medical malpractice cases accounted for an average of only four percent of tort cases in 13 states reporting. Between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year (and 300,000 are injured) due to medical errors in hospitals alone. Yet eight times as many patients are injured as ever file a claim; 16 times as many suffer injuries as receive any compensation. At the highest level, the estimated number of medical injuries (in hospitals and otherwise) is more than one million per year; approximately 85,000 malpractice suits are filed annually. “With about ten times as many injuries as malpractice claims, the only conclusion possible is that injured patients rarely file lawsuits.”

Don't shed tears over the recent failure of Congress to enact caps on "pain and suffering," or noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. Malpractice reform is urgently needed, but caps are not the remedy. A cap would limit what doctors and their insurance companies have to pay after a verdict, but it won't save the rest of us from unfair verdicts. Studies show that in medical cases, most verdicts against defendants - as many as 80% of them - are unfair and unjustified by scientific evidence. Caps on "pain and suffering" will merely cap the injustice. Congress should establish medical courts, where the verdicts will be made by judges or special masters trained to evaluate scientific evidence. Imagine any other area of the law with 80% wrong verdicts. If that were true in criminal law, no one would suggest that the remedy is caps on jail time.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that the annual cost of preventable medical error is between $17 billion and $29 billion. Despite some improvements following the study, not enough has been done to curb the epidemic of medical error; studies show billions of dollars are wasted each year and thousands of lives needlessly are lost.

Few issues in health care spark as much ire and angst as medical-malpractice litigation. Physicians revile malpractice claims as random events that visit unwarranted expense and emotional pain on competent, hardworking practitioners. Commentators lament the "lawsuit lottery," which provides windfalls for some patients, but no compensation for the vast majority of patients injured by medical care.