I was responding to the claim that “the verdict most time is againtst doctors” because juries are highly unsympathetic to doctors. In fact, that statement is erroneous: most verdicts are not against doctors. Are you claiming that in 50+% of all cases filed a jury would find for the plaintiff if the case were brought to trial? Would you say that juries were ‘unsympathetic’ if the result closely tracked the merits of the cases? (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press05102006.html)
A case where a weak claim is approved by a villainous jury makes for a more interesting story than a case where a weak claim is defeated. Doctors will be reluctant to talk about cases where strong claims were defeated by their defense teams, or cases where they were lost and were clearly in the wrong. The memetic selection here is too strong to rely on physician water-cooler discussions.
MD,
I was responding to the claim that “the verdict most time is againtst doctors” because juries are highly unsympathetic to doctors. In fact, that statement is erroneous: most verdicts are not against doctors. Are you claiming that in 50+% of all cases filed a jury would find for the plaintiff if the case were brought to trial? Would you say that juries were ‘unsympathetic’ if the result closely tracked the merits of the cases? (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press05102006.html)
A case where a weak claim is approved by a villainous jury makes for a more interesting story than a case where a weak claim is defeated. Doctors will be reluctant to talk about cases where strong claims were defeated by their defense teams, or cases where they were lost and were clearly in the wrong. The memetic selection here is too strong to rely on physician water-cooler discussions.