Should Physicians be Afraid of Tort Claims? Reviewing the Empirical Evidence
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Gijs van Dijck
Abstract
Do tort claims, or the fear of them, result in the adoption of practices aimed at protecting against tortious liability? Legislators, courts, and legal scholars often seem to think so, but is there empirical evidence to support this assumption? This article provides an answer to this question for the field of medical practice. An analysis of empirical studies on defensive medicine raises doubts as to whether the assumption holds true. The findings indicate that the empirical evidence is weak and that, if there is a concern about defensive practices, it seems to exist primarily in physicians’ minds. The results contribute to a better understanding of how tort law works, what effects it has on behaviour, and whether legal actors, especially at the intersection of law and medicine, should give credence to the defensive practices concern.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer(s) and Eric Tjong Tjin Tai for their comments and suggestions, and Thomas van Alphen for his research assistance.
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Opting for Tort
- Do Administrative Courts Favour the Government? Evidence from Medical Malpractice in Spain
- Diffusing Law Softly: Insights into the European Travels of Italian Tort Law
- Should Physicians be Afraid of Tort Claims? Reviewing the Empirical Evidence
- Revocation of Fishing Quotas, ‘Positive Discrimination’, and Loss of a Chance – A Comment on ECJ, Giordano v Commission 20 March 2014
- On the Transformation of Economic Analysis of Tort Law
- Book Reviews
- Philippe Pierre and Fabrice Leduc (eds), La réparation intégrale en Europe. Études comparatives des droits nationaux (Éditions Larcier, Bruxelles 2012) 505pp. ISBN 978-2-9600997-3-7. € 104 (paperback).
- Israel Gilead/Michael D Green/Bernhard A Koch (eds), Proportional Liability: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives (de Gruyter, 2013), Tort and Insurance Law Series, vol 33, 376 pp. ISBN 978-3-11-028258-0. € 109.95 (hardcover).
- Eva Ondreasova, Die Gehilfenhaftung – Eine rechtsvergleichende Untersuchung zum österreichischen Recht mit Vorschlägen zur Reform [Liability for auxiliaries – A Comparative Law Study on Austrian Law with Proposals for Reform] (Manz Vienna, 2013). XXXVI + 258 pp. ISBN 978-3-214-00763-8. € 54 (paperback).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Opting for Tort
- Do Administrative Courts Favour the Government? Evidence from Medical Malpractice in Spain
- Diffusing Law Softly: Insights into the European Travels of Italian Tort Law
- Should Physicians be Afraid of Tort Claims? Reviewing the Empirical Evidence
- Revocation of Fishing Quotas, ‘Positive Discrimination’, and Loss of a Chance – A Comment on ECJ, Giordano v Commission 20 March 2014
- On the Transformation of Economic Analysis of Tort Law
- Book Reviews
- Philippe Pierre and Fabrice Leduc (eds), La réparation intégrale en Europe. Études comparatives des droits nationaux (Éditions Larcier, Bruxelles 2012) 505pp. ISBN 978-2-9600997-3-7. € 104 (paperback).
- Israel Gilead/Michael D Green/Bernhard A Koch (eds), Proportional Liability: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives (de Gruyter, 2013), Tort and Insurance Law Series, vol 33, 376 pp. ISBN 978-3-11-028258-0. € 109.95 (hardcover).
- Eva Ondreasova, Die Gehilfenhaftung – Eine rechtsvergleichende Untersuchung zum österreichischen Recht mit Vorschlägen zur Reform [Liability for auxiliaries – A Comparative Law Study on Austrian Law with Proposals for Reform] (Manz Vienna, 2013). XXXVI + 258 pp. ISBN 978-3-214-00763-8. € 54 (paperback).
