Personal Injury Law

Updates on House Judicial Committee Medical Liability Hearing

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

Today members of the U.S. House Judicial Committee met to discuss issue related to medical liability and malpractice lawsuits. The hearing involved discussion of patients rights as well as repeated, misguided claims about the need to take away certain legal decisions from juries.

Many member of Congress stood tall in their support for the preservation of patient rights. For example, Representative Nadler made clear that all discussion of malpractice had to focus on the fact that 98,000 patients die each year because of preventable medical mistakes. Advocates for victims also explained that the claims regarding rising healthcare costs is not related to the judgments in malpractice cases.

The reality is that researchers consistently find that malpractice lawsuits and the proposed ?reforms? would have little if any effect on healthcare costs. The vast majority of expenses in litigation are related to claims of merit.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on January 20, 2011 (boomark / email).