Solving the medical malpractice crisis: use a clear and convincing evidence standard.
The medical malpractice crisis has smoldered for many years with few new ideas regarding how to improve matters. Physicians promote limits on plaintiff noneconomic damages, but this has been ferociously resisted by the legal community. They argue that limiting remuneration to patients harmed by negligent practices is fundamentally wrong. We hypothesize that malpractice litigation is out of control because of an excessively lax evidence standard. Raising the evidence standard from the current "more likely than not" to "clear and convincing" would sharply reduce medical malpractice judgments against physicians. Clear and convincing is an evidence standard currently in use by courts for certain cases, and its adoption for malpractice litigation would not limit compensation for injuries resulting from negligent practices and should be well received by the legal community.
Engel
Eli
E
Division of Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Surgery, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390-9156, USA.
Livingston
Edward H
EH
D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States