Medical Malpractice and the American Jury: Confronting the Myths About Jury Incompetence, Deep Pockets, and Outrageous Damage Awards

• NCJ Number: 158282
• Author(s): N Vidmar
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 330 pages
• Sale Source: University of Michigan Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book examines the civil jury as its carries out its duties in respect to lawsuits involving medical malpractice.

Abstract

Using statistics on the number of malpractice lawsuits that go to trial and the number of cases that result in awards to the plaintiff, the author repudiates claims that civil juries tend to be oversympathetic to plaintiffs and to award excessive amounts for pain and suffering and punitive damage. A comparison of actual jury decisions with neutral physicians' ratings of whether medical negligence occurred in particular cases were very consistent, showing that juries can understand and analyze expert evidence. Similarly, a comparison of damages awarded in malpractice suits with those awarded in automobile injury cases demonstrates that damage awards are generally consistent with the seriousness of injury and economic loss.