Abstract
This chapter examines the costs and contributions of the current legal framework for seeking justice to remedy medical malpractice. Patients injured by medical treatment or misdiagnosis can sue for malpractice. To recover damages, plaintiffs must prove "negligence"-that is, that their providers failed to exercise due care. The plaintiff must establish four elements of a tort lawsuit: duty, breach, proximate cause, and damages. The chapter first considers problems with the current malpractice system, including injustices to individuals who are unable to mount effective litigation when they are victims of malpractice. It then discusses what justice requires for handling cases of negligent injury and evaluates the performance of the legal system against that standard, and whether popular tort reforms are moving the legal system closer to or further from the standard.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Medicine and Social Justice |
Subtitle of host publication | Essays on the Distribution of Health Care |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780190267551 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780199744206 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 13 2012 |
Keywords
- Damages
- Justice
- Medical malpractice
- Negligence
- Negligent injury
- Proximate cause
- Tort lawsuit
- Tort reforms
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities