The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

One of the important components of the plan to reduce health care costs from (failed) presidential candidate John McCain was to reform the tort system to protect doctors and reduce the cost of defensive medicine. On the surface, tort system reform is predicated on the claim that it is a "jackpot justice" system in which every doctor lives in fear that a frivolous medical malpractice lawsuit could bankrupt him or her. But the truth is that the tort system works, and that both doctors and patients should not only embrace it, but expand its impact.

The tort system, although not perfect, is, according to studies, very good at rewarding people injured as a result of medical errors while protecting doctors from frivolous claims. The most comprehensive study of medical malpractice claims, a 2006 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed, first and foremost, that there is no epidemic of frivolous medical malpractice litigation. In a study of over 1450 closed medical malpractice lawsuits randomly selected from 1984-2004, it was determined that 97 % of all lawsuits filed involved actual documentable injury to the patient. This means that although medical malpractice attorneys are often portrayed as ambulance chasers ready to take any case with the least bit of merit, they actually perform an important role in prescreening lawsuits for merit.

About 63 % of the injuries were the result of actual, documentable medical errors, such as retained foreign body injuries. In cases involving error, about 73 % of people received payment. By contrast, in cases involving no error, only 28 % received payment. Thus, the tort system not only ensures that medical malpractice lawsuits are usually only brought in cases of actual injury, but ensures that doctors who make errors are more likely to pay than those who do not, by a ratio of essentially 3:1.

In addition, a more recent study published in the Iowa Law Review by University of Missouri researchers looked at how the amount of payment received related to the quality of the claim. They found that if a person received good care overall, the average payment for their injury was as little as $7,000, whereas if they received poor care, the average payment for their injury could be over $200,000.

This seems like a system that works. If you have been injured as a result of a doctor's error, the tort system has high odds of getting you payment for that injury, and selecting a lawyer with the resources to thoroughly research your case and pursue it to its end can increase your odds still further. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with the medical malpractice lawyers at The Cochran Firm today.