Doctors who have had enough with frivolous lawsuits have banded together to analyze frivolous lawsuits and take action to discourage unethical lawyers, their paid “experts”, and others from participating in future lawsuits.Medical Justice, launched in 2002 is a membership-based organization designed to complement tort reform and head off frivolous lawsuits.
The service started by a neurosurgeon and attorney has two important components. First, they look at the quality of the so-called expert-witness testimony.
WHY?
Sadly, many frivolous lawsuits are supported by questionable testimony from expert ‘hired guns.”
Thankfully, Medical Justice deals with these dishonest expert witnesses by relying on precedent law that upholds the right of medical specialties to police their own members.
Many medical societies have panels to review, police, and discipline wayward “experts.” Medical Justice utilizes these panels to help them weed out unscrupulous witnesses.
Patient-Physician Agreements
Medical Justice’s second tool is a patient-physician contract. This contract states that in a legitimate dispute, both sides will utilize only those experts who belong to such societies and who strictly follow their code of ethics.
By using contract law, Medical Justice members are sued at a rate of less than 2% versus the national average of doctors being sued at the rate of 8%-12%. Based on these statistics, membership appears to be a cost-effective ounce of prevention, especially with the career cost of even a settled lawsuit in the National Practitioner Data Banks
See Medical Justice for further details and to see if membership is available in your state and makes sense for you.
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Sometimes, if a mistake is made, it is best to just come forward in advance and let the patient know that a mistake was made. Dr. JC from the GNIF Brain Blogger reports that many medical malpractice lawsuits are filled to get “time and attention” from the physician.
Sincerely,
Shaheen
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