OBJECTIVE An increasing number of general psychiatrists are acting as expert witnesses in the legal system. The purpose of this article is to help psychiatrists who are interested in doing forensic work by informing them of the risks entailed. METHOD The author reviews the medical and legal literature about expert witness immunity. RESULTS The author explains the traditional concept of expe...

MUCHOF THE PREVIOUS DISCUSSION IN LIBRARY LITERATURE about professional standards concerns librarian malpractice risks. After explaining why these risks have not materialized, this article examines the role of professional standards in fostering good practice in librarianship. Components of good practice include professional knowledge, core competencies, and professional values. INTRODUCTION Do...

• Objective: To determine what annual increase in malpractice premiums would be acceptable to academic physicians at a large institution. • Methods: All 270 full-time physician faculty in the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2004 were invited to participate in this study. A contingent valuation approach was used to assess willingness to accept a specified...

This paper looks at Texas tort law reform to make claims regarding the relationship between Texas tort reform and damages recovered. Starting with reform in 1977, Texas has passed 15 pieces of legislation that, in principle, restrict the damages plaintiffs recover. Most empirical analyses have focused primarily on analyzing behavior resulting from the tort reform. In other cases, research has l...

Veterinarians today face an increased risk for malpractice claims in view of increased client awareness of the benefits of the human-animal bond and advances in preventive and specialized veterinary medicine. An important problem with medical malpractice litigation is the manner in which malpractice claims are resolved. In several countries, thousands of claims have been successfully resolved v...

This chapter reviews two areas of the medical regulation literature; the licensing of medical professionals and medical malpractice. The licensing literature draws upon a more general literature which explains the existence of regulation as reflecting the interests of either (1) the regulated profession, (2) the public, or (3) a combination of both the public and the profession. The major contr...

Introduction: Medical malpractice and prostate cancer screening are important issues in the current landscape of health care. We identified factors contributing to litigation in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Methods: We used the Westlaw database to search for jury verdict reports using the term medical malpractice combined with prostate cancer with dates ranging from January 2000 to Decembe...