Document Detail


Juries and medical malpractice claims: empirical facts versus myths.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19002541     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Juries in medical malpractice trials are viewed as incompetent, antidoctor, irresponsible in awarding damages to patients, and casting a threatening shadow over the settlement process. Several decades of systematic empirical research yields little support for these claims. This article summarizes those findings. Doctors win about three cases of four that go to trial. Juries are skeptical about inflated claims. Jury verdicts on negligence are roughly similar to assessments made by medical experts and judges. Damage awards tend to correlate positively with the severity of injury. There are defensible reasons for large damage awards. Moreover, the largest awards are typically settled for much less than the verdicts.
Authors:
Neil Vidmar
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2008-11-11
Journal Detail:
Title:  Clinical orthopaedics and related research     Volume:  467     ISSN:  1528-1132     ISO Abbreviation:  Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.     Publication Date:  2009 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-01-19     Completed Date:  2009-02-10     Revised Date:  2010-09-23    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0075674     Medline TA:  Clin Orthop Relat Res     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  367-75     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Duke University School of Law, Durham, NC 27708-0360, USA. vidmar@law.duke.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Decision Making
Humans
Insurance, Liability
Malpractice / economics,  legislation & jurisprudence*,  statistics & numerical data
Negotiating
Physicians / legislation & jurisprudence
United States
Comments/Corrections

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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