Do Canadian lawyers sue a lot for medical malpractice?

[elkan80]

Serious question given that it is a single-payer country. Is medical malpractice suits in Canada, where the government is the defendant, as rampant as medical malpractice suits are here in the states?

After obesity and smoking, the biggest medical expense in the US is due to Tort Law.

[tredway]

"After obesity and smoking, the biggest medical expense in the US is due to Tort Law."

That statement is so patently incorrect it baffles me how you even reach that conclusion. The VAST majority of medical costs come from unpaid ER visits by the uninsured.

under the restrictions you suggest: if my wife's doctor made a mistake, causing my child to be permanently disabled on delivery and a jury of citizens decided that it would cost me, say, $600,000 to provide treatment for the first 18 years of his/her life - your plan would remove that decision from the hands of my peers and the judge, and instead limit it to some arbitrary amount in order to keep costs down.

[garbhach65]

Not really. There are lawsuits, yes, but those are for legitimate claims of clear neglect and are still made against the doctors (not the government).

[camdin90]

No.

There are several for this...

1. Loser-pays. Canada has a loser-pays legal system. If you sue someone and loose, a judge may declare the case 'without merit' and order the plaintiff to pay the defendants legal and/or the court costs. It avoids 'blackmail' lawsuits which you get in the US where the doctors/insurance settles merely to avoid the cost of a lawsuit.

2. No medical damages. Because of universal health care, you typically can't sue for any medical costs to correct the issue since they would be covered. Any medical costs you suffer as a result are automatically covered. Also, since you are covered, you don't need to sue immediately in order to get money for care.

3. Liability limits. In Canada there are absolute liability limits on non-deliberate damages for pain and suffering. This is based on inflation and sits around $330,000. Loss of work damages are not so limited, but typically costs issue maximums of around $1M -- the general reason being that if you were in a profession which could earn much more than this... you'd carry your own insurance.

4. Better regulation/certification. Canadian doctors are better monitored and because the province owns all the hospitals and there are a limited number of provinces... you typically don't get incompetent doctors moving around. Doctor rating sites, licensing agencies (college of physicians), etc. make it much easier to deal with a problem doctor.

5. Arbitration. Most provinces require malpractice claims to go through an arbitration process of some sort. The province usually wants to settle (since it will be paying the medical costs anyway) and the lawyers usually want to settle (since they are capped in awards anyway). Most judges are unlikely to award much more than the arbitrator decides anyway. Usually in these cases, fault is fairly obvious and there is little reason to draw things out in court.