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Out of Court and Onto the Web

By Debra Sydnor and Joshua Becker
November 29, 2006
If a doctor's mistakes can be broadcast over the Internet for all the world to see, will he or she be more or less likely to settle a claim? What about plaintiffs? What are the implications for them should their suits against doctors and hospitals some day become public knowledge?

Most plaintiffs likely assume that their lawsuit will be resolved through settlement, trial, or some form of alternative dispute resolution. At worst, they might believe that if the case is not concluded at trial it will be resolved on appeal. When it is over, however, plaintiffs may not necessarily be able to close the book on the incident with confidence that it will not resurface. At the same time, over the last several decades, when litigiousness in American society has seemed to grow by leaps and bounds, physicians found comfort in including confidentiality clauses in their settlement agreements to prevent the general public from evaluating the details of those settlements. An increasing reality, however, is that the aftereffects of a plaintiff filing a medical malpractice claim or of a defendant contesting, or even settling that claim, may continue beyond the litigation.

Government entities, private groups and even disgruntled private citizens are starting to use the Internet to broadcast their displeasure with what they see as 'dangerous doctors' or 'money-grubbing plaintiffs,' spreading the reach of the Web beyond the boundaries of the litigation itself by naming names of those who sue or are sued for medical malpractice.

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