Broadsheet

“At the average contingent fee agreement of 40 percent, Pennsylvania trial lawyers pocketed $805 million,” said Robert B. Surrick, Esq., Executive Director of the Politically Active Physicians Association (P.A.P.A.).

Since April 2002, doctors have been required to file reports with their licensing boards when they have been sued for malpractice. Last fall, an investigation by Surrick revealed that trial lawyers had filed 5,600 lawsuits against Pennsylvania physicians between May of 2002 and November, 2004. Of those lawsuits, the Pennsylvania Medical Board had reviewed 3,600 cases, and found only four (4) that showed merit.

“Trial lawyers have sued our doctors at the rate of six per day, seven days a week, for thirty months,” said Surrick. “Yet out of thousands of cases filed, only four have been deemed worthy of further investigation. We don't have rampant medical malpractice in Pennsylvania. Rather, we have rampant medical malpractice lawsuit abuse.”