AMCNO Medical Legal Work Group Reviewing Alternative Dispute Resolution Concepts

Recently, the AMCNO hosted the first meeting of this physician/attorney work group. The work group is made up of plaintiff and defense attorneys, some in private practice and others from area hospitals, as well as AMCNO physician representatives and the Chief Justice. The group received detailed background on a program operating in New York which was started as a judge-directed negotiation program working with one large hospital chain in the New York City area. The program was directed to expediting the adjudication and early resolution of medical liability cases – in an effort to reduce administration/litigation costs. The judge that spearheaded the concept is a medically-trained judge and the program worked as follows: any medical liability case filed in the New York City area against an institution or doctor at the hospital network would be automatically assigned to the specially trained judge to handle for all pretrial activities. The judge would schedule an early pretrial and take a hard look at the case with counsel, discussing all facts very early on, rather than just setting further dates at the first pretrial. There would be a push for an early settlement in many cases, or for dismissal in weak cases, and the judge would limit the discovery in most cases to just the key depositions. The judge’s program was able to substantially shorten litigation time and reportedly save the hospital network an estimated $50 million dollars per year. 

At the meeting the Chief Justice thanked the AMCNO for convening the group and for providing her with the opportunity to become familiar with the program in New York. She stated that she is on record as supporting any initiative that would expedite the delivery of justice – however, there can be challenges when changes are contemplated. The group discussed how medical malpractice cases are dealt with overall in Cuyahoga County noting that at times cases appear to get delayed. Several members of the work group voiced support for the idea of specially trained judges for these cases. Others agreed that mediation utilized in a case at an early stage can be a useful tool in resolving medical malpractice cases. One suggestion was to consider the use of a group of expert mediators for the court in this area of the state – with the notion that the judiciary is alerted that mediation would be utilized early on in a case as opposed to final pretrial.  

The group agreed that more than likely this cannot be a one size fits all concept since the complexity of the issue will not allow it. However, these are several concepts that will be discussed by the work group in the future such as early intervention in malpractice cases, the use of mediators in the court, or the use of a retired judge to be the gatekeeper or mediator with the knowledge that the case will be assigned to another judge. The group also intends to continue the discussion about specialized dockets directed only to medical malpractice cases or some other screening process before filing a case. The work group members were asked to provide examples of other models or best practices that have worked in other parts of the country that could be explored or tailored for consideration. The AMCNO will continue to participate in these discussions and provide updates to our members.