Medical Malpractice Myth #1
The American Association for Justice published “5 Myths About Medical Negligence” last November. In the next few blog posts, we’re going to discuss these myths. The first one is “There are too many frivolous lawsuits”. This myth is easily dispelled by looking at the facts and not the rhetoric from the insurance industry. According to the Institute of Medicine, 98,000 patients die each year from preventable medical errors. However, the number of medical malpractice lawsuits remains very low. Many states require that any medical malpractice claim be submitted to a review board prior to the filing of a lawsuit. Furthermore, medical malpractice lawsuits are extremely expensive and labor intensive. Experts have to be hired and countless hours of staff labor go into each case. Any law firm that pursued frivolous lawsuits would soon find itself out of business.
According to the Harvard study, researchers found that 97% of closed medical malpractice claims are meritorious and that 80% involved death or serious injury.
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