Four in 10 Malpractice Cases Groundless

[mshheaddoc]

Article

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DeLaughterDO]

that's all?

 

[McDoctor]

I read the study in NEJM and the statistic that caught my eye was that 54% of all monetary compensation went towards lawyers and other miscellaneous fees. The plaintiff in these cases were left with roughly 46 cents of every dollar awarded.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I actually thought that article was sort of good news because it showed that most meritless lawsuits aren't successful and that people who are truly injured get more than people who aren't. At least, I don't see any support for malpractice caps from the study.

 

[Law2Doc]

I read the study in NEJM and the statistic that caught my eye was that 54% of all monetary compensation went towards lawyers and other miscellaneous fees. The plaintiff in these cases were left with roughly 46 cents of every dollar awarded.

Since most lawyers are limited by law with respect to how high the contingency fees may be (typically capped at 30%), that means that the rest is court costs and medical expert fees. Although if you had one of those 40% of groundless cases in the first place, I guess getting 46 cents per dollar would sound pretty good.

There are a couple of flaws with the article, the most significant being how "groundless" or "frivolous" was determined. Certainly not by a judge or based on the existing legal standard, or the lawyers would have been sanctioned -- there is no evidence of that here. I also agree that insurance company figures have to be taken with a bit of skepticism -- they aren't exactly impartial here. But interesting article.

 

[McDoctor]

The article does point out that roughly 1 out of 6 cases where there was documented injury were NOT compensated. Interesting that the media didn't widely report this finding.