The idea of malpractice reform may make you worry that it will make it more difficult to hold doctors accountable for their mistakes in Massachusetts. However, reform may be what is best for everyone involved in a malpractice situation. When you look at the facts and information surrounding this process, you can see why reform could be a good thing.
Forbes explains that currently, malpractice lawsuits do not always provide the best results. You can file a lawsuit, but you should not expect it to be resolved very quickly. In fact, one of the biggest issues in this area of law is that it takes so long to settle a case. If you have to go to trial, it takes even longer. This often is due to the extreme number of cases. A severe caseload slows down the system.
Reform could limit the number of cases. The proposed idea is to introduce safe harbor laws that would prevent you from filing a claim against a doctor who followed clinical guidelines when treating you. This would eliminate cases where a doctor did not do something that would have discovered your illness quicker or helped to prevent complications from occurring but that was not part of the acceptable treatment or diagnostic guidelines.
This type of reform helps to ensure that doctors are held responsible only for true mistakes and errors. This would free up the system and help move cases along more quickly. This information is for education only and is not legal advice.
