What Percentage of Medical Malpractice Cases that Go to Trial Are Won by the Patient?
What percentage of medical malpractice cases that go to trial in Tennessee are won by the patient?
About eighteen to twenty percent of cases that are tried are won by the patient. The rest are won by the health care provider.
This makes it sounds like the rest of the cases are frivolous. They are not. In the other cases there can be a legitimate basis for disagreeing on the issues in the case, and in our society those disagreements are resolved by juries. In the cases that are lost there is always at least one licensed health care professional who has testified that the defendant health care professional committed one or more negligent acts. To be sure, the defendant and his or her experts disagree with that, but it is that disagreement that is resolved by a jury.
It is also important to remember that medical malpractice defendants settle cases they believe they are likely to lose if they can settle for an amount of money the patient is willing to accept. Therefore, the only cases that are tried are those with a legitimate disagreement on liability or the value of the case.
