The Judgment Defense in Medical Malpractice

Excerpt

In medical malpractice litigation, one well-recognized defense is that the physician or surgeon was simply using his or her best judgment, such that an adverse outcome was simply a matter of probability. In fact, the shielding of physicians and surgeons from legal liability under circumstances where it is clear that prudent professional judgment was exercised is a time-honored principle of American jurisprudence. To wit, in 1898, the court in the legal case of Pike v Honsinger set forth the principle that a physician or surgeon would not be “… liable for a mere error of judgment, provided he does what he thinks is best after careful examination” [1]. The Pike case dealt with a poor outcome from closed treatment of a patella fracture. …