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.

Why a malpractice lawsuit follows you after you win

Conditions and Diseases
June 15, 2026

There is a number most physicians carry quietly, and a second number almost none of them are told.

The first: If you practice medicine in the United States, the odds that you will be named in a malpractice claim at some point in your career are high, and in some specialties close to certain. The American Medical Association’s most recent analysis of its Physician Practice Benchmark data puts the share of …

Read more…

Why a malpractice lawsuit follows you after you win

You won the lawsuit. Search still says you lost.

Health Technology
June 13, 2026

Kevin Pho has spent two decades making one argument to physicians: Your online reputation does not manage itself. Patients Google you before they call your office. What they find shapes their decision before you say a word. The solution, as he has consistently framed it, is to create content, to claim the top listings rather than leaving them to chance.

That advice is correct. It is also, in one specific and …

Read more…

You won the lawsuit. Search still says you lost.

EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems

Health Policy
June 13, 2026

I don’t think many physicians would disagree that EMR usability is a patient safety issue. And yet, health systems seem perfectly happy to place 100 percent of the blame for any glitches on physicians.

I was recently involved in a situation where a physician was being blamed for an obvious system error. The physician in question is an experienced and dedicated pediatrician, well known in the area for her compassion …

Read more…

EMR errors get blamed on physicians, not systems

5 ways hospitals can reduce medical malpractice claims

Conditions and Diseases
June 10, 2026

I don’t know any physicians who aren’t worried about being sued. It is unfortunately very common in today’s world, with some specialties like neurosurgery and obstetrics disproportionately experiencing higher lawsuits. The fear of litigation is not benign, and health employers need to reduce litigation and better support staff.

Recently there has also been a trend with the so-called “nuclear verdict.” These are very costly jury verdicts that can devastate a physician …

Read more…

5 ways hospitals can reduce medical malpractice claims

Why juries struggle with medical malpractice cases

Physician
June 1, 2026

In a Philadelphia courtroom this spring, a malpractice verdict unraveled in real time. A juror stood up during the reading of the verdict and said to the judge, “I think I misunderstood your question.” Moments later, when asked again if she agreed, she answered, “No, I do not.” What followed was confusion, re-polling, shifting answers, and ultimately a legally valid but deeply disturbing conclusion: The defendant physician was partly negligent, …

Read more…

Why juries struggle with medical malpractice cases

Medical trauma and the betrayal of patient trust

Physician
May 30, 2026

A patient entering a cosmetic surgeon’s office may remove her clothing, disclose fears she has not told her family, submit to anesthesia, reveal pain, expose scars, ask embarrassing questions, or place her body in the hands of strangers. When her privacy is violated, psychological and lasting harm may ensue.

That is why the recent judgment from the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario against Toronto plastic surgeon Dr. …

Read more…

Medical trauma and the betrayal of patient trust

One hallucinated citation can end your expert witness career [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 29, 2026
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

One AI-hallucinated citation on cross-examination, and the expert witness career you built is over. It is already happening. Tracy Liberatore, a former physician assistant turned attorney and founder of the National Expert Academy, …

Read more…

One hallucinated citation can end your expert witness career [PODCAST]

Medical malpractice lawsuits cost $56 billion a year

Physician
May 26, 2026

Medical malpractice is big business in the United States. The only database monitoring medical malpractice is the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). The NPDB’s annual report claims only 13,000 medical malpractice lawsuits. The NPDB was first established by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act in 1986. It was created by politicians (attorneys) for the express purpose of tracking specific adverse actions against health care practitioners.

Only 13,000 lawsuits are hardly “big …

Read more…

Medical malpractice lawsuits cost $56 billion a year

The hidden cost of medical malpractice litigation

Conditions and Diseases
May 23, 2026

The emergency department was bright after midnight. An older man in his 80s arrived short of breath and frightened, surrounded by anxious family members. He had diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and a recent fever. The nurse checked his blood pressure and tried to calm his daughter. The physician reviewed the chart and knew immediately: This would not be a simple night.

In medicine, we often work in the gray …

Read more…

The hidden cost of medical malpractice litigation

How a diversionary legal strategy harms medical malpractice

Physician
May 15, 2026

A set of medical malpractice cases can be presented as examples of a legal strategy that may undermine a fair trial. In Case A v. Medical Center A, a 16-year-old girl conceives in and lives in a developing country until 17 weeks of gestation and receives no prenatal care until 20 weeks of gestation, when she arrives in the United States. At that time, she is found to have chlamydia.

Other …

Read more…

How a diversionary legal strategy harms medical malpractice

Medical apology laws don’t reduce malpractice lawsuits

Physician
May 15, 2026

An apology after medical harm still matters, but perhaps not for the reasons medicine once believed.

For a long time, medicine saw apologizing after a bad outcome as risky or, at best, a way to protect oneself. Doctors were told to say as little as possible: Avoid guessing, don’t admit fault, and don’t apologize. This made sense in a legal system where lawsuits are common. But after a serious mistake, staying …

Read more…

Medical apology laws don’t reduce malpractice lawsuits

Medical malpractice risks persist even after saving a life

Health Policy
May 13, 2026

It is 2:17 a.m. in a crowded emergency room. A patient is rushed in. The patient is unconscious, unstable, and rapidly deteriorating. There is no time to obtain a detailed medical history, no opportunity for a careful discussion of risks, and obviously no time to seek consent. The doctor decides to take immediate action which saves the patient’s life. Weeks pass. The same doctor is served with a lawsuit.

At first …

Read more…

Medical malpractice risks persist even after saving a life

Unavoidable pressure ulcer claims live and die by the record

Conditions and Diseases
May 11, 2026

Scenario: A resident develops a stage 4 pressure ulcer after admission to a long-term care facility. Plaintiff counsel argues the facility failed to prevent it. Defense counsel argues the ulcer was clinically unavoidable. Both positions hinge on the same federal regulation. The question is what the regulation actually says, and how the medical record measures up to it.

To work through this one, it is time for a history lesson. Travel …

Read more…

Unavoidable pressure ulcer claims live and die by the record

ADVERTISEMENT

How medical malpractice cases reveal health care system flaws

Physician
May 7, 2026

Again, I must discuss two cases of medical malpractice which I feel best demonstrate the quagmire our health care system finds itself in. One is a medical malpractice case against a hospital. It follows that this case also has a merit of only 33.48 percent. Nevertheless, there is a legal strategy that tips the scale by not permitting testimony discussing conditions occurring in another country, where the first 17 …

Read more…

How medical malpractice cases reveal health care system flaws

Medical expert witness report language gets cases struck

Conditions and Diseases
May 4, 2026

If you think one word inside a medical expert report cannot break a case, look at what happened in Kline v. Zimmer. A defense expert testified about possible alternative causes of a plaintiff’s injury, not probable ones. That single word, possibly, is the reason opinions like his are routinely challenged. Across multiple jurisdictions, courts have held that an expert who testifies in possibilities is offering no evidence at all.

In civil …

Read more…

Medical expert witness report language gets cases struck

The cost of chaos in medical malpractice litigation

Physician
April 29, 2026

If anything represents the economic effects of medical malpractice, it is the following two cases. One involves a teenage mother and a major academic medical center. According to attorneys on both sides, the lawsuit is legitimate. However, its underlying merit is described as only 25.3 percent. Nevertheless, a legal strategy obscures this. The mother is 16 years old when she conceives and lives in a West African country until 17 …

Read more…

The cost of chaos in medical malpractice litigation

Why experiential consent is replacing traditional medical consent forms

Physician
April 23, 2026

Imagine sitting in a witness box while a plaintiff attorney holds up your drafted, 15th-grade surgical consent form. You know the patient signed it. You know you spent 10 minutes explaining the risks. But then the attorney asks the patient: “When the doctor warned you about positive dysphotopsia, did you know it meant you wouldn’t be able to drive your grandchildren home at night?” The patient cries. The jury glares …

Read more…

Why experiential consent is replacing traditional medical consent forms

Medical expert testimony vs. advocacy in the courtroom

Physician
April 20, 2026

In Opinions, which is section 9.7.1 of the American Medical Association (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics, a physician serving as an expert witness has a duty to act as an objective, independent professional whose opinions are based on science, and not act as an advocate whose opinions win lawsuits. The question, which I now raise, is: “Are opinions expressed by a medical expert, which have 95 percent confidence (the …

Read more…

Medical expert testimony vs. advocacy in the courtroom

The evolving standard of medical weight loss and obesity treatment

Conditions and Diseases
April 12, 2026

Obesity is an epidemic. Obesity, the predispositions for obesity, and the medical consequences of obesity are a major, if not the major, contributing factors to most medical conditions that plague American society. This is true for everything, including cancers. For instance, how many people smoke in the mistaken belief that smoking controls appetite, and how many cancers have obesity as a risk factor? There are genetic …

Read more…

The evolving standard of medical weight loss and obesity treatment

Physician legal protection: Surviving academic medical center blame

Physician
April 6, 2026

On October 20, 2015, I did something unremarkable: I turned on the GPS app on my Android phone before driving to work. I had no idea that routine act would one day save my career and expose a pattern of institutional behavior that every academic physician needs to understand.

I was an assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at a major academic medical center. Two days after a high-risk patient …

Read more…

Physician legal protection: Surviving academic medical center blame

26
pages