Hopefully a few lawyers with some decent experience and knowledge can help me with this. It is probably a pretty simple thing, but for myself I have difficulty understanding this system. I am a physician. Why is that physicians as a profession are so easy to sue sucessfully as opposed to other professions?
All that has to happen in most cases is that some negative event supposedly related to medical care has to occur, and then the plantiff's attorney has to get his or her hands on a random doctor that is of the same specialty as the doctor being sued that is willing to go on record saying that the defendant physician was negligent. Then the plantiff has a very decent chance of getting a settlement. Nothing has to be actually proven in terms of whether or not the defendant actually was negligent, reckless, etc.
So why is that lawsuits against people of other professions are not as successful? Say I am taken to court in a civil case. My lawyer does a terrible job, and I lose my shirt. So why can't I get my hands on another lawyer who will review the records, testify that my original lawyer operated well below the 'standard of care' and bring a 'malpractice' suit against my original lawyer to recover damages? In theory, this concept could be applied to any profession. Your mechanic, accountant, etc etc. Please enlighten me. Is the legal code just not built to protect physicians?
Small sums of money...there are many potential legal malpractice cases where huge sums of money are involved. But I know it is much more difficult to win a legal malpractice case than a medical malpractice case. Law is also considered an 'art', yet it seems to me that is it not held to the same standard.
It is difficult to get physician expert witnesseses? I know of a case now where three physicians of two different specialties are being sued with regards to one patient. The probability of all three physicians operating below the standard of care is very low. Yet the plantiff's lawyer apparently had no problem getting a hold of physician expert witnesses willing to testify. Expert witnesses are paid well for their time, and as far as I know, there is no limit to how many cases they can be involved in, so obviously there is a conflict of interest.
Orignal From: Physician Malpractice Law i.e. Why Are Doctors So Easy To Sue?
Post a Comment