Fight Against Frivolous Medical Malpractice Suits Needed, Op-Ed Says

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 16 Jul 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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"Though the medical tort system is designed to deter unsafe practices and to make negligently injured patients whole, it does neither. Nor does it prevent a high frequency of frivolous lawsuits," Jeffrey Segal, a neurosurgeon and founder and CEO of Medical Justice Services, and Michael Sacopulos, general counsel for the organization, write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Segal and Sacopulos write that they founded Medical Justice "to complement tort reform and to head off frivolous lawsuits," adding that the membership-based organization "pays the bills and provides the services to file countersuits against all proponents of meritless lawsuits" by employing "two principal components."

Under the first, the organization reviews "the quality of so-called expert witness testimony," and its "second tool is a patient-physician contract" that "states that in a legitimate dispute, both sides will utilize only those experts" who belong to medical specialty societies and who agree to abide by the societies' codes of ethics, Segal and Sacopulos say. The authors continue that their approach works, noting five years of data show that "Medical Justice plan members are sued at a rate of under just 2% a year," while the "average doctor is sued at a rate of 8%-12% per year" (Segal/Sacopulos, Wall Street Journal, 7/12).

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