Monday, June 26, 2006

Doctors Have Upper Hand at Trial

Remember the idea of a fair trail. No such thing exist when an individual is injured by a doctor. A Massachusetts newspaper investigation reveals that patients rarely win in medical malpractice lawsuits against doctors. The article shows that since 1998 only five plaintiffs in the county were awarded judgments; 88 had their claims dismissed. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Medical Society said outright that doctors usually win; yet, the medical society is lobbying the Legislature for more restrictions on medical malpractice lawsuits. The medical society claims jury awards and settlements are driving up the cost of malpractice insurance rates, forcing doctors to leave Massachusetts. Milford Daily News, Massachusetts, 06/25/2006

1 comment:

Dr Mike said...

There is selection bias in the data. Doctor's malpractice attorneys will settle bad cases long before getting to trial. The few cases which make it to trial are ones the defense attorneys feel they can easily win. So the data posted are not representative of all cases. Nonetheless I agree with everyone else that the system is broken. It only helps a small number of attorneys on both sides.