Physicians' insuring practices influence their incentives to take care when treating patients, their risk of making out-of-pocket payments in malpractice cases, and the adequacy of compensation available to injured patients. Yet these practices and their effects have rarely been studied. Using...

In a prior article in this journal, we estimated the effect of an “O'Connell” early settlement offer program on payouts in medical malpractice litigation. Using Texas data and a base set of assumptions, we predicted that early offers would result in a 16% (20%) decline in payouts in...

Many physicians and tort reform advocates believe that most medical malpractice (“med mal”) claims are “frivolous”; they often rely on reports that only about 20% of claims result in a payout. Many physicians and reform advocates also believe that plaintiffs lawyers often sue every...

Since 1980, Illinois has experienced three med mal insurance crises – in the mid-1980s, mid-1990s, and early-2000s. Each time, Illinois responded by enacting tort reform. Using a previously unavailable database of closed medical malpractice (“med mal”) claims, maintained by the Illinois...

Little is known about the economics of plaintiff-side law firms, which typically work on a contingency fee basis. We begin here to fill that gap. We report on the fees received by 124 plaintiff-side personal injury firms located in four states (Illinois, Texas, and two additional undisclosed...

We compare the online reviews of 221 “Questionable” Illinois and Indiana physicians with multiple paid medical malpractice claims and disciplinary sanctions with matched control physicians with clean records. Across five prominent online rating services, we find small, mostly insignificant...

All insurance has coverage limits, and insurers usually control whether a case is settled or tried. If the insurer rejects a within-limits settlement offer, the insured bears the risk of an above-limits verdict. In response, virtually every state has imposed a ldquo;duty to settlerdquo; on...

In 2003, Texas adopted House Bill 4 ("HB 4") which capped non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases and included several other smaller reforms. To proponents, HB 4 is a silver bullet, encouraging physicians to move to Texas by reducing frivolous lawsuits, preventing excessive damage...