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Full-Text Articles in Law
"Sorry" Is Never Enough: How State Apology Laws Fail To Reduce Medical Malpractice Liability Risk, W. Kip Viscusi, Benjamin J. Mcmichael, R. Lawrence Van Horn
"Sorry" Is Never Enough: How State Apology Laws Fail To Reduce Medical Malpractice Liability Risk, W. Kip Viscusi, Benjamin J. Mcmichael, R. Lawrence Van Horn
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Based on case studies indicating that apologies from physicians to patients can promote healing, understanding, and dispute resolution, 38 states have sought to reduce litigation and medical malpractice liability by enacting apology laws. Apology laws facilitate apologies by making them inadmissible in subsequent malpractice trials.
The underlying assumption regarding the potential efficacy of these laws is that, after receiving an apology, patients will be less likely to pursue a malpractice claim and will be more likely to settle those claims that are filed. However, once a patient has been made aware that the physician has committed a medical error, the …
A Taste Of Their Own Medicine: Examining The Admissibility Of Experts' Prior Malpractice Under The Federal Rules Of Evidence, Neil Henson
Vanderbilt Law Review
Medical malpractice litigation is challenging for both plaintiffs and defendants. The intersection of legal issues with complex medical theories creates a dispute focused on expert witnesses, which leads to greater litigation expenses and cumbersome legal proceedings.' As one scholar observed, "medical malpractice has proven to be ... an unpleasant quagmire of unending skirmishes and full-scale engagements spread across a shifting battlefield." That analogy is fitting considering the stakes of a medical malpractice case-the injured patient's emotional, physical, and financial well-being may be contingent on a successful outcome, while the doctor may perceive even the threat of litigation as detrimental to …
Medical Malpractice Litigation And Tort Reform: It's The Incentives, Stupid, David A. Hyman, Charles Silver
Medical Malpractice Litigation And Tort Reform: It's The Incentives, Stupid, David A. Hyman, Charles Silver
Vanderbilt Law Review
Health care providers and tort reformers invariably claim that the medical malpractice litigation system is rife with behaviors that are irrational, unpredictable, and counter-productive. They attack civil juries, asserting that verdicts are skyrocketing without reason, are highly variable, and bear little or no relation to the merits of plaintiffs' claims. They complain about patients, arguing that the few with valid claims sue rarely, while the many who receive non- negligent treatment sue all the time. They attack greedy lawyers, alleging that they rake in obscene profits by routinely filing frivolous complaints. They complain that compensation flows almost randomly, winding up …
Modern Techniques In The Preparation And Trial Of A Medical Malpractice Suit, Fitz-Gerald Ames Sr
Modern Techniques In The Preparation And Trial Of A Medical Malpractice Suit, Fitz-Gerald Ames Sr
Vanderbilt Law Review
Though it is true that in malpractice suits more than in any other type of litigation, the plaintiff must have a strong case on the merits, it is equally important and almost a necessity in most malpractice cases that patient's counsel carefully and thoroughly condition the jurors' minds from the very outset to a psychological acceptance of this type of litigation. Far too many veniremen, before they have been selected as trial jurors in a malpractice suit, have the attitude that (1) a "malpractice" suit connotes conduct either criminal, quasi-criminal or unethical on the part of the doctor or hospital; …