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ONE med-mal claim and she throws it in? She went through undergrad, med school, residency and possibly a fellowship and then practiced for 10 years and after one suit she hangs it up? Did she have other work-life issues that were a factor?

Her insurance co. revoked her discount simply because she got sued? I'm not sure that that's 'bad faith' strictly defined but a pretty lousy thing for the insurance company to do.

You say she was "on call" for one of the other docs in her practice group.

You probably don't want to hear this, but YOU stepped up with the original post, so here goes: the question of whether anyone could reasonably connect her advice to the delivery is one for the jury to decide.

It's common practice in the securities industry for a client to agree to arbitration when they open an account. One of the arbitrators is always someone with securities experience. Maybe we need to go that way in the medical profession, to preserve the adverserial system, while injecting a little industry knowledge into the process.

I wouldn't mind seeing "loser pays," either. Contrary to what most people think, med-mal cases aren't costless to file, experts aren't free, discovery and lawyers time isn't for nothing. The fact that there's a contingent fee structure in place has nothing to do with it: by the time the case gets to trial, tens of thousands have been invested in the case, and a whole bunch are "no-causes." The trouble is that an indigent plaintiff doesn't have the money to risk, whether his or her claim is legitimate or not.

Sorry to hear about your colleague Dr. Smith. All the recent stats show the number of docs constricting in the US, and right or wrong, med-mal cases are a big part of it.