PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Litigation”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Effects of active and completed litigation on treatment results: workers' compensation patients compared with other litigation patients.

Outcomes of multidisciplinary pain treatment in workers' compensation claimants and in the claimants of other insurance companies were studied. Patients were also segregated as to state of completion of the litigation process. No differences were found between the groups in organic and psychologic pathology. Significant improvement in outcome measures was found for the total group, but the workers' compensation claimants with completed litigation failed to show any significant improvement in these measures. The system itself and legal factors can be obstacles to rehabilitation of the patient with chronic pain. Early intervention is recommended to improve treatment outcome.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

Litigation and employment status: effects on patients with chronic pain.

In order to study the effects of compensation and litigation, 201 chronic pain patients were selected from a sample of 444: 99 were working, 15 were working and litigating, 53 were receiving Worker's Compensation, and 34 were receiving Worker's Compensation and litigating. Employment (working vs. Worker's Compensation) and litigation status (litigating vs. not litigating) were analyzed in a 2 x 2 factorial design with measures of pain, disability, psychological distress, and selected demographics as dependent variables. Compared to Worker's Compensation patients, working patients reported significantly less disability (down-time, days spent in bed, interference of pain in daily activities) and pain of a longer duration. Compared to litigating patients, non-litigating patients reported less pain (on the McGill Pain Questionnaire) and less disability (stopping activity, interference of pain in daily activities). On two measures of psychological distress (depression, anxiety), there were significant interactions: Worker's Compensation patients who were litigating reported less distress than non-litigants, while working patients who were litigating reported more distress than non-litigants. The results indicate clear differences in self-reports of disability associated with both employment and litigation status. They also suggest that litigation may function as a coping response for patients who are distressed by the adversarial nature of the Worker's Compensation system. Limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research also are discussed.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1993

Litigation involving medical faculty and academic medical centers, 1950-1991.

An analysis is presented of 240 cases of litigation involving medical faculty, medical schools, and academic medical centers reported over the period 1950-1991. The number of reported cases increased dramatically over the study period in association with the expansion of the national medical educational enterprise. These cases can be conveniently divided by the issues they dealt with into three broad areas: general administration (89 cases), clinical affairs (108 cases), and research issues (43 cases). Cases of litigation related to general administration were most often concerned with the hiring, promotion and/or tenure, and discharge of faculty, with nearly half of these alleging discrimination. General administrative disputes also arose over allocation of departmental resources and responsibilities, faculty conduct, Veterans Affairs, relationships, employee benefits, system-wide discrimination, and collective bargaining. Courts generally supported the exercise of administrative discretion, yet examined procedures carefully. Litigation related to clinical affairs increased dramatically in recent years. Issues litigated reflect the complexity of the existing academic health care system and environment: sovereign immunity and/or malpractice, practice plans, staff privileges, indemnification, access to peer review records or other records, and conduct of practice. Outcomes of clinically related litigation through 1991 indicate substantial leeway for medical faculty, medical schools, and academic medical centers to innovate and advance their patient mission. Litigation related to medical research also accelerated recently. Issues litigated involved grants and/or personnel management, research risks, commercialization, research funding, ethics, and research animals. Litigation has paralleled (1) federal policy initiatives designed to stimulate collaboration between industry and academia and (2) the growth of regulations designed to monitor policy areas affecting research. The exposure of academic medical administrators and faculty to litigation has increased in the last 40 years. Medical schools and academic medical centers should take active steps to reduce future risks of litigation.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1994

Litigation and chronic facial pain.

Clinical studies have suggested that the presence of litigation in chronic pain syndromes may complicate diagnostic and treatment strategies. In addition, psychosocial factors may be prevalent in such cases. The present study explored the possible correlation in the facial pain population between patients in litigation and psychological disturbance as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Beck Depression Inventory and Wahler Symptom Checklist scores also were compared. One hundred eleven patients diagnosed with chronic facial pain were asked if they currently were involved in litigation related to their medical complaints. The result revealed that 18% of the 111 patients were in litigation at the time of their initial visit. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles showed that 45% of the litigation patients had four or more clinical scales above 70 (significantly elevated) on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. In contrast, only 18% of the patients who were not in litigation had four or more scales above the 70 criteria. Beck and Wahler scores also were more elevated for the litigation group. The results of the study indicate that chronic facial pain patients in litigation may present with more psychological disturbance as compared to those patients not in litigation.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1991

The role of litigation in predicting disability outcomes in chronic pain patients.

This study examined the extent to which being involved in civil and industrial litigation predicted outcome in an population of chronic pain patients. Data were collected in a structured telephone interview for a litigant group of 80 patients and a nonlitigant group of 47 patients. There were no significant differences in the amount of medication used, the number of hours spent resting per day, or the number of individuals who were able to return to work. Litigants showed significantly higher levels of depression. Multiple regression analyses indicated that litigation was not the primary predictor of downtime or medication use. Litigation was found to be the primary predictor of Zung depression scores. Discriminant function analyses indicated that litigation was not the most important variable in distinguishing between those working and not working. Results lend support to previous studies that suggest that the suspicion and disbelief with which litigating patients are often treated is unfounded.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Carpal tunnel syndrome. Effects of litigation on utilization of health care and physician workload.

We performed a study consisting of two parts to investigate the impact of litigation on patient recovery and physician workload. We received 556 replies from a questionnaire sent to hand surgeons and discovered that 98.20% of them felt that litigation increased the subjective complaints of patients. Most of these physicians (89.75%) also felt that litigation led to a worse result from treatment. Second, we undertook a retrospective chart review of 447 patients to see if there was a correlation between litigation, patient utilization of health care and physician workload. We found that workers' compensation patients with pending litigation went to the doctor's office more. They also had more letters, phone calls, and forms associated with their care, had more nerve conduction studies performed, and took longer to be discharged from care than patients with non-work-related carpal tunnel syndrome as well as workers' compensation patients who did not have pending litigation. These results indicated that litigation does affect patient utilization of health care and increases the workload on the physician.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Malpractice litigation fear and risk management beliefs among teaching hospital physicians.

We address four major issues related to physicians' fear of litigation: What are physicians' attitudes and beliefs toward malpractice? To whom or what do they attribute the "malpractice crisis"? Is fear of litigation associated with demographic and practice variables? What measures do physicians take to reduce risk? Hospital physicians in a southeastern health science center were surveyed (N = 356). Physicians attributed the malpractice crisis to circumstances outside medicine and beyond their control, perceived some patients as suitprone, and reported altering their practice to avoid being sued. Litigation fear was associated with physicians who were female, younger, not board certified, less clinically experienced, more clinically active, defendants in prior lawsuits, and in high-risk specialties. Physicians who were especially fearful of litigation placed less value in risk-management techniques. The findings are important in understanding how the prospect of litigation is perceived by physicians and how that perception may affect medical practice.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Psychological profiles distinguishing litigating and nonlitigating pain patients: subtle, and not so subtle.

Chronic pain patients in the midst of litigation over settlement for their injuries were examined as a naturally occurring group where one might expect various distortions or differences in test findings on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Revised (MMPI-2). Similar groups of 43 chronic pain patients in litigation and 45 not in litigation were examined on 10 key MMPI-2 variables selected a priori. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant difference between groups (p = .036). Litigators were most distinct in endorsing more obvious and fewer subtle symptoms. A conversion profile was also more salient for litigators once the obvious versus subtle differences were taken into account. Implications for use of the MMPI-2 and for clinical work with litigious patients are examined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Countersuit litigation.

Countersuit litigation brings into sharp focus some difficult and conflicting concepts in law and social policy. A point that seems reasonably self-evident is that the existence of a viable countersuit remedy in most states has not produced the huge volume of litigation that might create a "chilling effect" upon access to the courts, and it is not likely to do so in the future. If our system is actually committed to the idea that all disputes can be submitted to the courts for resolution, it is difficult to conclude that a remedy should not be available to an individual who has been subjected to the very real cost and hardship of defending a frivolous lawsuit. The use of the legal system to provide redress for injuries should be a two-way street. The fact that a remedy should exist, however, does not necessarily mean that is should be encouraged. Most serious-minded people understand that certain types of inconvenience are a necessary part of life in a civilized society. Nevertheless, if litigation is increasingly becoming a mechanism for profit or an instrument to remedy the most minor grievance, some response is mandatory. While litigation is a serious matter and should not be undertaken lightly, it is impossible to overlook the fact that there is a certain percentage of cases that are filed to exploit the system at the expense of innocent defendants. If litigation serves a dual purpose of providing compensation to injured parties and setting appropriate standards for future conduct, it is hard to find a rational basis for denying a countersuit remedy to those who have been victimized in this manner.

Jurisprudence↗
PubMed1988

Collective judicial management of mass toxic tort controversies: lessons and issues from the Agent Orange litigation.

Viewing the Agent Orange litigation as a case study, this article explores the feasibility and desirability of strengthening the powers of the courts to manage toxic tort controversies en masse. The Agent Orange lawsuit, brought on behalf of potentially millions of Vietnam War veterans and family members, charged that herbicides used for military purposes during the war caused a wide range of health problems. This article first reviews the current national debate over how mass toxic tort controversies should be handled, including key legislative reform options, and describes how attention is increasingly focused on ways that the court system might better cope with mass toxic torts. The principal events of the Agent Orange litigation are then summarized, by which the litigation was consolidated into a massive class action, the class action was settled, and a streamlined plan for distributing the settlement fund was adopted. The article evaluates the outcome of the litigation, and discusses whether the solution there can and should be broadly applied to other mass toxic tort cases. This question depends, in part, on a series of complex legal and practical issues, but the author suggests that the question will also depend on what institutional role we expect the judiciary to play within society.

2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid↗
PubMed1985

Unraveling the effects of compensation, litigation, and employment on treatment response in chronic pain.

Although it has often been suggested that chronic pain patients who are receiving workmen's compensation or who have litigation pending are less likely to benefit from treatment, the results of outcome studies of this question conducted by various pain clinics have been inconsistent. We hypothesized that poorer outcome in such patients may be related to the fact that they are less likely to be working and that the inconsistent results in the literature may therefore be explained by variability among studies in the percentages of patients who are receiving compensation (or who have litigation pending) who are also working. We examined the relationships among compensation, litigation, employment, and short- and long-term treatment response in a series of 454 chronic pain patients. Compensation benefits and employment status both predicted poorer short-term outcome in univariate analyses; however, when employment and compensation were jointly used to predict outcome in multiple regression analyses, only employment was significant. In additional analyses, only employment significantly predicted long-term outcome, whereas compensation and litigation did not. Our results suggest that it would be valuable to redirect attention away from the deleterious effects of the 'compensation neurosis' and toward the roles of activity and employment in the treatment and rehabilitation of chronic pain patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Forty years of litigation involving medical students and their education: I. General educational issues.

An analysis of reported state and federal adjudication from 1950 through 1989 was undertaken to identify trends in litigation involving medical students and undergraduate medical education. Of the 110 decisions cited, 51 (46%) involved disputes over general educational issues. A majority of the decisions affecting general education involved admissions and dismissal processes. Recently courts have begun scrutinizing readmission, course repetition, and cheating. Medical schools have accommodated to judicial scrutiny of general educational issues and have prevailed more often than claimants in litigation during this period, but litigation has not decreased as precedent and procedure have become clearer. Instead, litigation has continued unabated in alternative areas and at different levels of the educational process.

Education, Medical, Undergraduate↗
PubMed1990

Image processing by computer analysis--potential use and application in civil and criminal litigation.

The image processing by computer analysis has established a data base for applications in the industrial world. Testing has proved that the same system can provide documentation and evidence in all facets of modern day life. The medicolegal aspects in civil and criminal litigation are no exception. The primary function of the image processing system is to derive all of the information available from the image being processed. The process will extract this information in an unbiased manner, based solely on the physics of reflected light energy. The computer will analyze this information and present it in pictorial form, with mathematical data to support the form presented. This information can be presented in the courtroom with full credibility as an unbiased, reliable witness. New scientific techniques shown in the courtroom are subject to their validity being proven. Past imaging techniques shown in the courtroom have made the conventional rules of evidence more difficult because of the different informational content and format required for presentation of these data. I believe the manner in which the evidence can now be presented in pictorial form will simplify the acceptance. Everyone, including the layman, the judge, and the jury, will be able to identify and understand the implications of the before and after changes to the image being presented. In this article, I have mentioned just some of the ways in which image processing by computer analysis can be useful in civil and criminal litigation areas: existing photographic evidence; forensic reconstruction; correlation of effect evidence with cause of evidence; medical records as legal protection; providing evidence of circumstance of death; child abuse, with tracking over time to prevent death; investigation of operating room associated deaths; detection of blood at the scene of the crime and on suspected objects; use of scales at the scene of the crime; providing medicolegal evidence beyond today's technology; and a new theory and technique on using polygraph information in litigation. I am sure that the professionals in the forensic field will be able to think of many more applications where the image processing by computer analysis tool will be able to provide solutions to complex problems. The next time you say to yourself, "I wish they would have preserved this," or, "It's too bad they didn't do an autopsy," think of this new tool that is available to help you get the documentation and answers that will stand up to the scrutiny of the civil and criminal litigation system.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1985

Pending litigation and rehabilitation outcome of chronic back pain.

The effects of pending litigation for compensation on treatment outcomes of patients with chronic low back pain, were assessed. The 81 patients with chronic low back pain who participated in a six-week behavioral treatment program organized around the theme of self-control, were differentiated according to whether there were unsettled legal claims for compensation. Scales from the MMPI and Health Index were administered before and after treatment. Three behavioral measures of physical mobility were obtained from representative subsamples in each group before and after treatment and at one and three months follow-up. Results indicated that after treatment, patients without litigation pending obtained significantly greater reductions on the Hypochondriasis and Hysteria scales of the MMPI and achieved relatively greater improvements on two behavior measures. Because patients with litigation pending also evidenced significant behavioral gains, the belief that these patients are at risk for treatment appears to be true only in relation to the patients without current litigation rather than in an absolute sense.

Back Pain↗
PubMed1986

Medical malpractice litigation: do the British have a better remedy?

Medical malpractice claims are filed nearly ten times more frequently in America than they are in Great Britain. British patients generally adopt a less adversarial stance toward medical malpractice than do American patients. This Article examines the British malpractice system, as compared with the American system, and explores the differences between the two, in terms of costs and fees, liability rules, statutory provisions, and judicial attitudes toward malpractice litigation. The Article also discusses British social and institutional factors, such as the "taint" of litigation and the National Health Service, and evaluates how these factors affect British malpractice litigation. The Article presents the alternative forums available to British patients in seeking satisfaction for their medical service complaints. The Article concludes with an evaluation of how these factors achieve the three societal objectives of malpractice litigation: reparation, emotional vindication and deterrence.

Attitude↗