How to avoid liability litigation in courts – Suggestions from a German example

The medical art is difficult, its results can not always be predicted. After looking at TV, patients know more or think they know more about medicine. They tend to assume faulty diagnostics or treatment by their physician, if the good result promised by the news-media or by the doctor himself has not been obtained. The resulting litigation in court is time-consuming, causes a lot of paperwork and frequently leads to negative publicity for the doctor in the local news-media. Therefore, in 1975, the German Medical Associations in the different federal areas have founded expert committees to help solve this problem. These avoid negative publicity, heavy expenses and law-suits. Presidents of these committees are high-level judges – mostly retired – with experience in the field. They are masters of the procedure, choose the experts and formulate the final draft. This structure invalidates the understandable suspicion that physicians will protect each other or – as we say in Germany: “A crow will not hurt the eye of another one”. The system is now well accepted by liability insurances, lawyers and patients.