Dr. Benjamin Rush filed one of the first professional libel lawsuits in the United States, incited by the writings of William Cobbett, a British journalist, concerning his treatment of yellow fever during the 1793 Philadelphia epidemic. The historical setting is described and the lawsuit...

In this paper, we explore the sensitivity in the clinical decisions of physicians to the standards of care expected of them under the law, drawing on the abandonment by states over time of rules holding physicians to standards determined by local customs and the contemporaneous adoption of...

How do medical errors affect physician behavior? Despite the importance of this question empirical evidence about it remains limited. This paper studies the impact of obstetricians’ medical errors that resulted in malpractice litigation on their subsequent choice of whether to perform a...

This article is about the pharma patent litigation sparked by Lundbeck’s blockbuster drug for 'escitalopram', a drug used for treating depression and generalized anxiety disorder. The article focuses on the trials and tribulations before the Dutch Patent Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court,...

There is an interesting exception to businesses’, employers’, and service providers’ seemingly universal embrace of arbitration processes, particularly mandatory pre-dispute arbitration. Although it may be difficult to believe given arbitration’s current popularity, not everyone requires...

Many U.S. states are now in their fifth year of a medical malpractice "crisis", a period of volatility in the malpractice insurance market characterized by above average increases in premiums, contractions in the supply of insurance and deterioration in the financial health of carriers....

The vast majority of patient injuries are caused by human error by professional, caring persons acting in good faith. However, these humans are bound and constrained by systems in which they must act. Systems are the appropriate focus to address human factors and errors, rather than the...

This Article centers on understanding the current state of end of life decision-making in America and how Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques can help to improve it. In this Article, which was awarded a 2003 Center for Public Resources (CPR) Award of Excellence, I aim to make three...

This Article explores the background of the Louisiana Health Emergency Powers Act (“LHEPA”), including proclamations that have summoned its current applicability, historical development, and, most importantly, Lejeune v. Steck, the only reported case to date involving the LHEPA. The Author...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 tackles many health care-related issues, but medical malpractice liability reform is not one of them. Despite being a perennial target of health care reform -- with accompanying assertions that a medical malpractice liability crisis is...