“WE’LL be the ones asking the questions here..”doc-tor”".

The tactic of answering questions with questions is transparent. This ‘dialogue’ between docs and lawyers never moves forward.

If progress is to be made on the reform of the legal system in America, single-minded focus on a particular goal should be applied. Direct all available resources toward the politician who will champion this goal…and toward burying the politician who stands in its way.

Legal representation in America must be a right, more so than medical care. It is a requirement of all citizens to be in compliance with a dizzying and paradoxical array of legal requirements in every aspect of civilian life.
Therefore lawyers should be made available, at nominal charge, at all times to all citizens.
Further, the damage done to a life due to legal malpractice cannot be quantifed, or limited to exclude emotional or non-accrued economic losses…there should be no limits on the amount of liability a lawyer or judge should bear for professional mistakes.

It is that simple.

I’m not sure how you determine it is “so porous”. What is the error rate now and what do you believe it should be?

The reason you can’t find the information you’re looking for at the Arizona Bar Association’s website is because that isn’t what the Bar does. The Bar Association is a voluntary organization. The Arizona Supreme Court regulates Arizona lawyers, and I would bet they have the information you are looking for on their site, along with information on where to file claims, etc. At a minimum you can FOI it, as their disciplinary proceedings are public record I expect. Now, I’m not promising you a state govt. website will be easy to navigate, but the information is likely there.

The only “conclusion” I made was that physicians are loath to testify against each other, which is what I thought she was talking about. On a related point, though, I think it’s kind of sad that physicians aren’t rated in some more meaningful way so that patients can choose based on peer rankings, for example. Of course, since you guys all pretty much get paid the same regardless of skill, maybe that’s why.

As for physicians policing their own, yes, the evidence they don’t is anecdotal, and I would caution anyone about making policy changes based on anecdotal evidence. It’s stories like this one below, though, which seem to belie the rigor you claim above. Of course, any system will have imperfections and people who fall through the cracks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39677-2005Apr9.html

re: “However, both professions have their incompetents, the difference being that all too often the local medical boards simply revoke hospital privileges for negligent doctors, allowing the incompetent doctor to move on to another community to do damage. Perhaps if physicians policed their own, instead of keeping a vow of silence, there would be fewer negligent doctors and, thus, fewer medical malpractice lawsuits”

Corinne is stating that local (actually they are state boards since they are the licensing entities, not local boards) aren’t doing their jobs and bad docs move from state to state, hospital to hospital. This flies in the face of everything any doctor who has applied for licensing or hospital priviledges knows. I am telling you that every place I have worked at requires primary verfication from every hospital and every state I have worked. Everything going back to med school (or at least 10 years). It is an onerous process that takes a MINIMUM of three months. I am also telling you that every state I have practiced in (I am not saying it is all 50 states) has PDF files of every doctor sanctioned including the specifics of the case and the sanction on the web, for all to read. That is how it should be. Of course the bar in my state doesn’t have anything near the same thing for sanctions against lawyers. Again, just who has the code of silence? The fact is you and corinne are making conclusions without any evidence to support it? Now doesn’t that sound familiar to what you are saying to the tort reformers on this site?

If you want out of a case quickly step up and volunteer to be deposed as soon as all the records are gathered. Or better yet be willing to be deposed pre-suit. If you see an attorney has requested your records and you think it might be for a malpractice claim call them and volunteer. Nothing is stopping you.

Obviously there is some filtering going on as you said yourself that the majority of malpractice goes uncompensated. In fact for all the complaining about too many claims the truth is physicians have no clue what the total number of claims are. Given the number of patient interactions it may be more than you expect or it may be less. But you dont have any evidence either way yet you’ve already reached a conclusion. Doesn’t male much sense.

When you put forth a proposal in a legislature to compensate more people more quickly please let me know.

What year do you live on? Not 2009. Have you ever heard of primary verfication? Over the last decade, every hospital and state that I have ever applied to for licensing/privledges require primary verfication review of every single place I have worked at, every single state I have practiced in, and every malpractice carrier I have had. Throw on top of that the National Practitioner Data Bank. The will typically take 3-4 months before any anything is granted. Everything a doc has done since med school will be reviewed…period. Every doc knows that, since you know nothing aboutthe subject Iguess you don’t. But feel free to ponitificate given you lakc of knowledge on the subject. Yeah, slimeballs get away with lying and falsifying documents. That is rare enough that it is newsworthy (and I am sure you will give me an exapmle in your response). That says something about an individual scumbag doc not about the system. The idea that docs commonly go from state to state committing malpractice then moving on and getting away with it. Well do free feel to show the national evidence. Not an ancedote or two. Because the reality of the situation for those of us who have applied for multiple state licenses and hospital associations does not bear out your statement.
Speaking of a “code of silence” I practice in arizona. Every complaint is reviewed by the board with negative outcomes (reprimands, suspensions, etc) placed under the doc in a PDF format with the specifics of the allegation. That is how it should be. Interesting, on the arizona bar site, you can barely find any outcome and certainly no specifics. Now just WHO is partaking in a code of silence?