Article

Study: Doctors Win Most Med-Mal Suits

  •  
  •  
  •  
  • Print

Juries in medical malpractice cases find for physicians more often than plaintiffs, a researcher told the New Jersey Law Journal.

Around 30 percent of medical malpractice suits result in a verdict for the plaintiff, according to professor Philip Peters Jr. of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. The rate of success is the lowest of any tort litigation.

Med-mal cases that fail to settle and go on to trial tend to be weak, Peters says. The results of his study will be published in the Michigan Law Review in May.

“Although the current system of resolving malpractice claims has many shortcomings, neither randomness nor favoritism toward injured patients is among them,” he writes in the article.

Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.