Unclogging Pennsylvania Courts

This month, we’ve seen even more evidence that states enacting medical liability reform are having a significant impact in reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits, thus providing speedier justice to plaintiffs who have suffered legitimate injuries and deserve compensation.  Pennsylvania is the latest state spotlighting the value of reform.

Of course, Pennsylvania reforms are not exactly new.  The state took action back in 2003 to address a situation in which, according to a Philadelphia Daily News columnist, “courts were clogged with cases and lawyers hit Vegas-level jackpots.”  The state began requiring attorneys to produce certificates of merit from medical professionals to prove that a legitimate case existed and it declared that cases must be tried in the same jurisdiction in which the alleged injury took place.   That put an end to ‘venue shopping,’ in which attorneys strived to get their cases tried in Philadelphia with its notoriously free-spending juries.

What’s new is the evidence that these reforms have had an effect.  The state Supreme Court announced last week that the number of medical malpractice cases filed in the state was down 44 percent in 2011 compared to the years before liability reforms were instituted.  With higher standards being required, attorneys are less likely to invest time and resources into questionable litigation.

There are still cases, though, that must have less than impeccable merit. In 2011, seven of every 10 liability cases were won by the defendant health providers.

It should be noted that Pennsylvania physicians and hospitals insist that further reforms are still necessary, that it is difficult to recruit new physicians to a litigation-heavy state and too much defensive medicine is being practiced.

Still, this is significant progress.