Despite a slight uptick in the number of 2013 medical malpractice filings, lawsuit abuse reforms that were adopted in 2002 appear to be having a positive impact to weed out meritless lawsuits. According to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), the latest filings show a 43.4 percent decline from the “base years” of 2000 to 2002. Specifically, the AOPC credits the elimination of venue shopping and requiring a certificate of merit.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society led the fight for these changes, and our prediction that they would cause a significant reduction in unnecessary lawsuits has been proven accurate. However, while Pennsylvania physicians can be justifiably pleased with the results of the Society’s hard-won reforms, more remains to be done. The AOPC points out that 77 percent of jury verdicts in 2013 went to the defense. In other words, personal injury lawyers are still taking too many cases to trial that do not involve physician negligence. Clearly, there’s more work to be done.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society has a robust, ongoing tort reform agenda that includes caps on pain and suffering awards, limits on plaintiffs’ attorney fees, increased liability protection for physicians who provide emergency care, strengthening the Certificate of Merit court rule, and closing the loophole in the expert witness requirements.
