BACKGROUND Interpersonal aspects of care, such as the communication behaviors of physicians, are often cited as central to patients' decisions to initiate malpractice litigation. Relatively little is known, however, about the impact of the communication behaviors of surgeons. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between judgments of surgeons' voice tone and their malpractice c...

This project empirically explores civil litigation from its inception by examining the content of civil complaints. We utilize spectral cluster analysis on a newly compiled federal district court data set of causes of action in complaints to illustrate the relationship of legal claims to one another, the broader composition of lawsuits in trial courts, and the breadth of pleading in individual ...

©FSRH J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2010: 36(4) Introduction Litigation can be seen as a reflection of medical error and harm to patients. Studying litigation may reveal trends from which lessons can be learned, leading to improvements in patient safety.1 The threat of litigation may be of some value in increasing investment in safety.2 An alternative to costly litigation is a no-fault compens...

Lawsuits against nursing homes are a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite a growing sense of alarm among policymakers, little is known about these lawsuits' scale, dynamics, or outcomes. To describe these characteristics, we conducted a Web-based survey of attorneys nationwide who bring and defend this litigation. Our respondents and their firms were involved in 4,677 and 8,256 claims, respect...

This essay will explore the idea that in the wake of the Constitutional Court’’s decision in Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg,1 activists who are committed to dismantling persistent racial and class inequality should weigh carefully the costs and benefits of using rights-based litigation as a strategy to advance their interests. In putting forward that general idea, I want to make two central po...

This paper studies the determinants of patent suits and settlements during 1978-1999 by linking information from the U.S. patent office, the federal courts and industry sources. We find that litigation risk is much higher for patents owned by individuals and firms with small patent portfolios. Patentees with a large portfolio of patents to trade, or other characteristics that facilitate “cooper...

The paper examines the role of executive compensation in inducing management behavior that triggers private securities litigation. Incentive pay in the form of options is found to increase the probability of securities class action lawsuits, holding constant a wide range of other firm characteristics. In contrast, base pay levels and share ownership do not have a significant impact on lawsuit i...

The legal system is an expensive social institution, raising the question of whether the amount of litigation is socially appropriate. The thesis developed here is that it is not—because of fundamental differences between private and social incentives to use the legal system. These differences permeate litigation, affecting decisions about the bringing of suits, settlement versus trial, and tri...

In the US continued and increased issuance of software and business method patents is criticized by many. Some argue that software and business method patents do not stimulate innovation but impede software development and encourage patent litigation. Beyond anecdotal evidence, no systematic study of the extent of patent litigation due to the new software and business method patents is availabl...

ABSTRACT Securities litigation is relatively rare, but can significantly affect sued firms. We extend this research by examining the spillover effect of securities on industry peers using a sample disclosure-related litigation—distinct from events such as restatements and SEC enforcement. find investors respond immediately exhibit negative abnormal returns before after case filings. Additionall...