In the great push for tort reform, one of the most often cited reasons is the need to rein in run-away juries in medical malpractice cases.
But is this fear real?
According to Professor Philip Peters, Jr. of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, juries are more likely to favor defendant doctors over plaintiff victims.
He found that only 27 to 30 percent of all medical malpractice lawsuits result in a plaintiff’s verdict.
Reviewing a fifteen year study conducted in New Jersey, he determined that less than half of the lawsuits which were deemed “indefensible” by the doctors themselves resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict.
If this study were to be believed, then one must wonder why doctors complain so much about the drastic increase in their malpractice premiums. Or, why their malpractice premiums are increasing as such a rapid pace….
In the grand scheme of blaming lawyers, judges, juries and even the American public for the problems with our litigious society, one must wonder why there has never been public discourse about the profitability of insurance companies.
