Dropped malpractice lawsuits cost legal system time and money

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Most medical malpractice lawsuits are not settled or decided in a trial. They are abandoned by the patients and family members who brought them.

A study published today in the journal Health Affairs looked at the outcomes of 3,695 malpractice claims filed in Massachusetts courts against hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers between 2006 and 2010. Fifty-nine percent of those claims were simply abandoned, found author Dwight Golann of the Suffolk University School of Law, far more than were settled (26 percent) and adjudicated (15 percent).

Golann interviewed malpractice attorneys, who said the most common reason that plaintiffs abandon lawsuits is because they learn more information about the medical care and conclude the case is weaker than they thought. For instance, a medical record suggests that a required step in treatment was not taken, but a defendant later testifies in a deposition that the step was taken but not recorded.

The problem is that dropped lawsuits are expensive. Malpractice insurers alone spend about $25,000 per dropped claim on defense costs. Golann called for reforms, saying that hospitals and insurance companies should develop new policies to encourage lawyers on both sides to exchange information more quickly and discuss cases more openly.