Are Doctors Really Mistreated by Juries?
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Here is a link to an interesting article published by the Michigan Law Review. www.michiganlawreview.org/archive/105/7/peters.pdf This article explores the widely held public view that jury verdicts in medical malpractice cases are unfair to doctors. Interestingly, research conducted over the last three decades indicates that just the opposite is true, juries tend to side with doctors even when the Plaintiff should win.
This article discusses in depth research conducted over the last 30 years in malpractice litigation. What is interesting is that even when a panel of medical experts agrees that malpractice has been committed and that the Plaintiff should prevail, juries tend to find in favor of the doctors about 50% of the time. In those cases that the panel of medical experts determines that no malpractice was committed, the research show the jury virtually always finds in favor of the doctor.
This article confirms what trial lawyers have known intuitively for years, ie. that juries in medical malpractice cases tend to bend over backwards to find in favor of the doctor. The popular idea that doctors are somehow being mistreated by runaway juries is not supported by the research.
