Should Malpractice Settlements Be Secret?

Empirical comparisons of malpractice claims of different medical specialties

Background: Variables affecting malpractice rates are important to the medical profession. Empirical data on trends in malpractice payments and settlements from anesthesiologists, surgeons, pediatricians and psychiatrists over an eight-year period are publicly available for analysis. Methods: A literature search of PubMed and Index Medicus was conducted for the years from 1985 to 2013 using the...

Complications and legal outcomes of tonsillectomy malpractice claims.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To review malpractice cases involving complications following tonsillectomy. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis at a tertiary medical center of jury verdict reports within the LexisNexis (Dayton, OH) database submitted after tonsillectomy malpractice cases. METHODS The LexisNexis MEGA Jury Verdicts and Settlements database was reviewed from 1984 through 2010 for compl...

Liability for Medical Malpractice

P_ hysicians and other medical providers are subject to a negligence rule of liability. To prevail, a plaintiff must show that he or she sustained damages that were caused by the failure of the physician to take due care, defined as customary practice of physicians in good standing with the profession, or a significant minority of such physicians. In a simple model, with perfect information and...

The practice of mediation to resolve clinical, bioethical, and medical malpractice disputes.

Mediation is a voluntary process whereby a neutral and impartial third party-t-he mediator--is present to facilitate communication and negotiation between the disputing parties so that amicable settlements can be agreed. Being confidential and non-adversarial in nature, the mediation process and skills are particularly applicable in clinical practice to facilitate challenging communications fol...

Determinants of Noneconomic Damages in Medical Malpractice Settlements and Litigations: Evidence from Texas since 1988