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Medical Malpractice And Wrongful Death: Some Lives Are Worth More Than Others, Ralph Peeples, Catherine T. Harris

Ralph Peeples

We examined the outcomes and case characteristics of all the wrongful death lawsuits defended by a medical malpractice insurer in Virginia and North Carolina from 2009 through 2014. We derived our data from the insurer's closed claims files. Our goal was to identify the factors that affected whether compensation was paid, as well as the factors that affected the amount of compensation, when that occurred. Using multivariate analysis, we found that four variables had predictive power: the claims adjuster's assessment of liability, the age of the deceased, the marital status of the deceased, and whether the primary physician-defendant was engaged …