Medical Malpractice in Your State

limiting patients' rights does not improve care or lower insurance rates

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South Carolina

According to the American Medical Association, South Carolina is showing "problem signs" and on the way to becoming a "crisis" state.

Reality Check:

• The number of doctors has gone up,
• the number of OB/GYNs has gone up, and
• the median compensation victims receive has remained stable.
  

South Carolina does not cap awards.

Price of Medical Malpractice

Source: Medical Malpractice Briefing Book: Challenging the Misleading Claims of the Doctors' Lobby, Public Citizen Congress Watch, rev. August 2004

Number of Personal Injury Lawsuits

There is no litigation explosion. The National Center for State Courts Recently reported that:

• Tort filings have declined by 5% since 1993. Contract filings, meanwhile, which are more likely to involve businesses than tort cases, rose by 21% over the same period.¹
  
  
• Automobile tort filings, which make up the majority of all tort claims, have fallen by 5% by 1993 and 14% since their high in 1996.¹
  
  
• Medical malpractice filings per 100,000 population have fallen 1% since 1998.²
  
  
• In 22 of the 30 states that NCSC examined population-adjusted tort findings declined from 1992 to 2001. The average change in tort filings across all 30 states was a 15% decrease.¹
  

Sources:

1. Examining the Work of State Courts, 2003, National Center for State Courts (NCSC) 2004
2. Medical Malpractice Filings per 100,000 Population in 11 and 17 States, 1993-2002, National Center for State Courts, 2004 (unpublished, on file with author)

Updated February 2005