Top Injuries Claimed in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
I’ve written about our dysfunctional medical malpractice tort system before. In my opinion, attorney’s fees and court costs have a disproportionate stake in the economics of medical malpractice and health insurance in general, as opposed to what really matters: compensating the injured patient and disciplining the guilty doctor(s).
I decided to take a look at the top types of injuries claimed in medical malpractice cases submitted to LegalMatch.com in the past 12 months. Here is what I found:
- Possibility of future harm: 34%
- Long term or permanent loss of physical ability: 29%
- Short term loss of physical ability: 15%
- Disfigurement or cosmetic injury: 13%
- Minor injury: 6%
- No injury: 3%
More than half of the above claims are potential cases of doctor discipline if the claims are taken at face value. This means that in addition to a malpractice claim, the doctor can be subject to punishment by medical licensing boards.
Unfortunately, the stunning reality is that hardly any of the medical malpractice claims won by plaintiffs will result in doctor discipline. According to a study by Public Citizens Health Research Group, of all the medical malpractice payouts between 1990 and 2004, only 5.4% of doctors were subject to discipline. Even worse, of those doctors who had three or more medical malpractice payouts to plaintiffs, only 11.4% were disciplined.
Why does that matter? Malpractice cases cost everyone money. They raise rates and they clog the tort system. If more doctors were subject to discipline for their negligence in addition to monetary sanctions, perhaps we would see less malpractice lawsuits? It would be a double whammy for doctors; they might take discipline more seriously and they might not be able to continue to practice if their negligence is brought before the proper authorities.
In fact, maybe we can get rid of malpractice lawsuits altogether? Establish some sort of board that can not only discipline doctors but extract compensation from them, or from some general client fund (such as those run by many state bars to compensate clients, like in California).
Certainly all the categories listed above face an uphill climb to get any compensation for the simple reason that litigating malpractice claims is costly. The big winners in our current malpractice system are not patients or the medical profession-they are (surprise surprise) the lawyers. Let’s change the equation and make this about good health and good medicine, not making money.
Comments
The fix: get med mal out of the court system and into binding arbitration. Why? -The jury system never supplies a jury of peers for a physician, and the arguments they listen to are beyond their education level. Arbitration also removes that other mouth that needs to be fed- the plaintiff’s attorney. They get paid 30-40% of indemnity. Without them, the money goes to the victim and you save 1/3 of the cost of med mal without reinventing the med mal wheel. The victim gets the money. Why isnt this done? -guess. The reasonable solution is aginst the bars self interest. They would stilll do well by exchanging blockbusters for volume.
The expense of lawsuits? – roughly 40% on indemnity paid. Think about that for a second. My way saves 30% of indemnity, 25% of expense and the money goes to the victim.
In Arbitration – : The arbitors would be physicians with attorneys presenting the arguments to the panel on an hourly basis. Pay them $400 an hour with a $5k retainer and 10% of the award. I’d pay that for both sides. The court system gets cleaned up, and the time from claim to resolution could be measured in months, not years.
Most of the claims that reach my desk have merit. The fact that the doc’s win 85% of the cases tried should not be interpeted frivelously. I try only those cases that I think that I can win- that is why the % is so high. I also settle alot of cases that I think that I can win. Recently, I had a completly defensible case that I settled. Why? – I had a deceased vetern widower in a military county and 2 orphan kids. My fear of the Hollywood court room scene, complicated medicine, and lay hometown jury forced my hand.
SAVE 40% IMMEDIATELY= PROBLEM CORRECTED
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Here is a link: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2009-09-17/news/dude-where-s-my-schlong-coral-gables-man-enrique-millas-loses-penis-after-penile-implant-surgery-performed-by-urologist-paul-e-perito/
Looking for a lawyer to take my case. I also was damaged by a dentist and my files were rewriten and the dates on the files were wrong. If you could help me i would gladly appreciate your help.