Information and the Disposition of Medical Malpractice Claims: A Competing Risks Analysis

We use a competing risk model to explore the relationship between information about case strength and the speed with which medical malpractice disputes are resolved. We have data on the time to resolution of such disputes in a group of English hospitals and how each dispute is resolved (drop, settlement, or trial). We also have detailed data on the evolution of expert assessments of case strength and the timing of external experts' reports that are designed to share information and that, therefore, might be expected to influence litigation outcomes. We find that litigation encourages dropping and settling of cases over time in a systematic way relating to their assessed strength; cases that involve relatively little uncertainty are resolved faster than those where liability is more unclear. We suggest that this evidence is consistent with the litigation process using time to help sort, and deal with, cases according to their strength.