Medical Malpractice Juries Tend to Side More With Doctors, Researcher Finds
Malpractice Juries Tend to Side More With Doctors, Researcher Finds
Charles Toutant
New Jersey Law Journal
April 26, 2007
Printer-friendly Email this Article Reprints & Permissions
Popular belief, at least in medical communities, holds that juries in medical malpractice cases tend to side with plaintiffs, even where the case against a doctor is a weak one.
But jurors actually tend to believe doctors more than they do plaintiffs, says a law professor who examined numerous data on medical malpractice litigation, including cases in New Jersey.
Philip Peters Jr., of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, concluded that juries treat doctors favorably, "perhaps unfairly so," and are more likely than even fellow physicians to defer to a doctor's opinion.
Peters found that most malpractice suits end in defense verdicts, and that the cases that go to trial tend to be the weakest ones, since those with strong evidence usually settle before trial.
Law.com - Malpractice Juries Tend to Side More With Doctors, Researcher Finds.
Bookmark: 
