Malpractice and Medical Liability

Physicians writing on KevinMD about being sued and about making mistakes: the summons, the deposition, and the verdict that does not feel like winning, whether damage caps and safe harbors work, frivolous claims argued from both sides, expert witnesses, nuclear verdicts and premiums, apology laws, and how physicians say errors happen and what it is like to make one. Two maintained records draw on this archive: Medical malpractice: what physicians say, in their own words and Medical errors: what physicians say, in their own words.

October 11, 2026Oct 11, 2026

We have built a society that runs on the promise of justice, and it is quietly making us miserable. We wait for the verdict, the apology, the firing, the settlement. We believe that when it comes, the wrong will be righted and we will finally feel whole. But, to me, the idea that justice rights a wrong is not true. We only think it makes us feel better. But does …

Physicians

4 steps to prove a breach of standard of care

Howard Smith, MD

October 10, 2026Oct 10, 2026

Step 1: Collate. Organize the standard of care and the medical intervention into 10 corresponding phases with a respective duty. Step 2: Compare. Compare corresponding phases using three measures: Background risk: Each phase in the standard of care. It is…

Step 1: Collate. Organize the standard of care and the medical intervention into 10 corresponding phases with a respective duty.

Step 2: Compare. Compare corresponding phases using three measures:

Background risk: Each phase in the standard of care. It is the probability that the complication is a random error-of-nature.
Relative risk: Risk of harm for each phase in the medical intervention. If there is no difference between a phase in standard

…

Conditions

Should good faith immunity cover trained clinicians?

Erin Daugherty, RN

October 8, 2026Oct 8, 2026

The high-profile Take Care of Maya case, chronicled in the Netflix documentary, placed the complex legal doctrines of qualified immunity and good faith immunity directly into the public spotlight. While a jury initially awarded the Kowalski family $261 million in damages (later reduced to $213.5 million) against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for claims including false imprisonment, medical negligence, and wrongful death, a Florida appellate court overturned the verdict. The …

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Physicians

An expert witness got patient autonomy exactly wrong

Howard Smith, MD

October 2, 2026Oct 2, 2026

One medical expert for the plaintiff attorney is most credited for the outcome in a widely publicized obstetric malpractice case against an academic medical center. That outcome is, at most, dubious, and that medical expert is, at most, highly credentialed, holding a medical degree along with several additional advanced degrees and training as an obstetrician and as a perinatologist.

It is his opinion that the baby suffered brain damage largely because …

Physicians

Blame culture in medicine leaves young doctors traumatized

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

October 1, 2026Oct 1, 2026

It plays out like a modern-day digital horror movie. On my social media feed, a snippet of a horribly sad drama catches my eye: A young woman, devastated and paralyzed by an unimaginable tragedy, has taken the lives of her own children. She had previously been under medical care, presenting with a complex psychiatric history that navigated the difficult waters often met with multiple therapies: antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents, and various …

Podcast

Blaming the doctor is cheaper than fixing the record system [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

September 19, 2026Sep 19, 2026

A pediatrician gave a child vaccines the chart said he needed. The record showing he had already had them was buried in the system. Dennis Hursh is a health law attorney and founder of Physician Agreements Health Law. This episode…

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Physicians

Frivolous malpractice lawsuits are a governance failure

Howard Smith, MD

September 17, 2026Sep 17, 2026

It's time to call out medical malpractice for what it really is. Dick Durbin's own words define what is behind medical malpractice. "Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals,…

It’s time to call out medical malpractice for what it really is. Dick Durbin’s own words define what is behind medical malpractice. “Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years, I sued them on behalf of people, who were victims of medical malpractice.”

Dick Durbin became a lawyer in 1969. He was first elected to Congress in 1982. …

Physicians

Frivolous malpractice lawsuits are a modern witch hunt

Howard Smith, MD

September 10, 2026Sep 10, 2026

The 1690s were turbulent times in Salem, Massachusetts. It started as a grudge between Puritans and Anglicans in Salem Village. Most farmers were Puritans, and most business owners and merchants were Anglicans. Central to that grudge was the Reverend Samuel Parris, a strict Puritan. His sermons denounced the affluence and worldliness of those in Salem Village as the reward for being in league with the Devil.

Then in February 1692, a …

Physicians

A frivolous malpractice lawsuit still raises your premium

Howard Smith, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

There are commercials on TV by prominent plaintiff personal injury law firms advertising for clients. One promotes "If we don't win, you don't pay." Another promotes the notion that anyone who owns a phone already has a lawyer. Still others…

There are commercials on TV by prominent plaintiff personal injury law firms advertising for clients. One promotes “If we don’t win, you don’t pay.” Another promotes the notion that anyone who owns a phone already has a lawyer. Still others promote the types of injuries that can be monetized, but never mention medical malpractice.

All imply that a contingency fee totally forgives clients of all legal transaction costs. All imply a …

Conditions

When AI misses a diagnosis, the cardiologist signs alone

Teddy A. Teddy, MD

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly reshaped cardiovascular imaging, particularly echocardiography, where machine learning algorithms now assist in image acquisition, chamber quantification, valvular assessment, strain analysis, and diagnostic interpretation. While these technologies promise enhanced efficiency and diagnostic accuracy, they also introduce an unresolved legal dilemma: When AI contributes to a missed diagnosis, who bears responsibility? Traditional malpractice principles designate the interpreting cardiologist as the primary legal decision-maker. Yet these doctrines evolved …

Physicians

Why merit decides a medical malpractice case

Howard Smith, MD

August 28, 2026Aug 28, 2026

If you are sued and satisfied with your defense, read no further. If not, you may find this article helpful. Merit is inconclusive in every medical malpractice lawsuit ever filed, and it starts with the certificate of merit. To be…

If you are sued and satisfied with your defense, read no further. If not, you may find this article helpful.

Merit is inconclusive in every medical malpractice lawsuit ever filed, and it starts with the certificate of merit. To be clear, a certificate of merit is not proof of negligence. Proof is determined at trial. Merit is a measure for the reliability of evidence used in the proof of negligence, and …

Podcast

Doctors and patients are not the enemy here [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

August 25, 2026Aug 25, 2026

He was sued for a case he barely remembered, and five years later it pushed him out of medicine. It is not just malpractice. Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician and the author of The Healthcare Heist: How Physicians…

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Conditions

What a medical malpractice verdict reveals about safety

Nicole Kruegel, Esq

August 21, 2026Aug 21, 2026

Every hospital in America has a critical-results policy. When a scan reveals something dangerous, the finding gets escalated urgently, personally, in a way that cannot fall through the cracks. Hospitals write these rules because they know a missed handoff kills…

In June, a jury in Aroostook County, Maine’s northernmost, most rural county, returned $23.1 million in what plaintiff’s counsel reports is the largest non-death medical …

Conditions

Social media addiction litigation blames the wrong party

Gordon B. Kuttner, MD, JD, MBA & Vijay Rajput, MD

August 20, 2026Aug 20, 2026

We have spent our careers moving between the exam room, where we treat patients and their symptoms, and the classroom, where we teach medical, law, and business students how these worlds intersect. Lately those worlds are colliding in a way…

A California jury recently found Meta and Google liable for a young woman’s depression, anxiety, and compulsive social media use, and commentators have …

Physicians

Research integrity and accountability lessons from 2026

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Research misconduct deserves scrutiny. But scrutiny should not become spectacle. The landmark 1980s case of U.S. cardiology researcher John Darsee remains a defining example. Auditors found extensive data fabrication, and federal sanctions reached beyond institutional leadership, forcing science research to confront supervision, authorship, and institutional accountability. The lesson was not simply that one researcher failed. The institution and research system also need safeguards.

Four decades later, the Retraction Watch leaderboard of …

Physicians

Medical malpractice reform and the lawyers who block it

Howard Smith, MD

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

Senator Dick Durbin describes his career this way: "Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years, I sued them on behalf of people who were victims of…

Senator Dick Durbin describes his career this way: “Before I was elected to Congress, I worked in a courtroom. For years, I defended doctors and hospitals, and for years, I sued them on behalf of people who were victims of medical malpractice.”

Dick Durbin’s own words betray that, first, he was defense counsel, earning a living being retained by malpractice insurance companies. Second, he was plaintiff counsel, earning a living by …

Physicians

Frivolous malpractice lawsuits: Doctors can fight back

Howard Smith, MD

August 12, 2026Aug 12, 2026

Medical malpractice litigation in the United States is the endless struggle to find meaning. Lawyers, plaintiff and defense attorneys alike, reject the notion that they are involved in a frivolous medical malpractice lawsuit. To protect themselves from this notion, they…

Medical malpractice litigation in the United States is the endless struggle to find meaning.

Lawyers, plaintiff and defense attorneys alike, reject the notion that they are involved in a frivolous medical malpractice lawsuit. To protect themselves from this notion, they use semantics. There are four words: legitimate, meritorious, frivolous, and malicious.

Legitimate is whimsical. It is in the eyes of the beholder. According to lawyers, all claims are legitimate.

Legitimate is conflated with …

Physicians

Most medical malpractice lawsuits are meritless

Howard Smith, MD

August 6, 2026Aug 6, 2026

The story of medical malpractice litigation in the United States is the endless struggle to find meaning. The United States is a litigious society. One out of every 230 Americans is a lawyer, and one out of every eight Americans…

The story of medical malpractice litigation in the United States is the endless struggle to find meaning.

The United States is a litigious society. One out of every 230 Americans is a lawyer, and one out of every eight Americans will be involved in litigation in one way or another and will need a lawyer. There are 40 million lawsuits per year. Between 20,000 and 85,000 are medical malpractice claims. …

Physicians

Who your malpractice defense lawyer really works for

Howard Smith, MD

August 4, 2026Aug 4, 2026

A miscreant is simply a troublemaker. When it comes to a medical malpractice lawsuit, the biggest miscreant is the defense attorney followed closely by the medical malpractice insurance company. For a doctor, medical malpractice insurance coverage is the difference between…

A miscreant is simply a troublemaker. When it comes to a medical malpractice lawsuit, the biggest miscreant is the defense attorney followed closely by the medical malpractice insurance company.

For a doctor, medical malpractice insurance coverage is the difference between financial security and ruin. I practice in the state of Maryland. Maryland law does not force physicians to buy medical malpractice insurance. Nevertheless, doctors must carry a policy, which has a …

Policy

A dismissed malpractice lawsuit still outranks your win

Tim Brocklehurst, MBA

August 3, 2026Aug 3, 2026

Earlier pieces argued that a favorable malpractice outcome leaves almost no public footprint, that outcome documents are the only content that can answer an outcome question, and, from a nine-surgeon Florida sample, that a dismissed lawsuit can still cost privileges.…

When I published the Florida findings in July, it might have been fair to argue that they were too particular to cause concern: nine surgeons, one state, one specialty. Florida’s …

Malpractice and Medical Liability

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