Recent news reports have portrayed a 13 percent increase in malpractice payouts in 2004 as dire news for doctors, but it is really dire news for patients.

In order for a payout to occur in a malpractice case, a doctor either has to agree to settle it or, in the very small percentage of cases that go to trial, a jury decides in favor of the injured patient. Therefore, the cases that contributed to the modest increase in payouts for 2004 are not so-called "frivolous" lawsuits, but meritorious cases won by the injured patient.

The slight increase in payouts doesn't signal a windfall for trial lawyers, as representatives of the medical lobby would have your readers believe. Rather, it signals an alarming increase in the amount and severity of malpractice cases in Pennsylvania.

Paul R. Lyon, Executive Director
The Committee for Justice for All
Kingston