OPINIONLawyers who play the liability lottery must be stoppedAMA Leader Commentary. By Donald J. Palmisano, MD, Feb. 16, 2004. A message to all physicians from AMA president Donald J. Palmisano, MD The United States delivers the best quality of medical care in the world to scores of millions of its citizens. This quality of care, however, is under dangerous siege -- although the attackers number but a relative handful. A small subset of the legal profession makes fortunes for themselves -- and creates costs for the rest of us -- by suing physicians. Whether it is justified or warranted is, for them, beside the point. It is an abuse of the legal system -- and it affects everyone. This abuse is in the form of disingenuous lawsuits aimed at getting money from someone else -- instead of seeking compensation for someone with legitimate claims. Some might call it legalized extortion. These abuses are choking the health care system. They are sending medical liability insurance premiums soaring for thousands of physicians, making it impractical, or impossible, for them to practice in many parts of the country. These lawsuits lead to other agonies as well. For a physician, a wrongful suit can cause great harm -- embarrassment, loss of time, defense costs, injury to reputation and resulting loss of practice, stress and anxiety. Meanwhile, cases with merit can take years to navigate an overloaded, confusing court system -- as they wait their day in court behind a traffic jam of frivolous suits -- brought by lawyers looking to win a litigation lottery -- and then taking a huge chunk of the award. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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