ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on aspects of professional liability and its litigation. Physicians can benefit and avoid litigation by application of the principles of risk management. Basic risk management principles include listening carefully to patients, documenting their complaints, comments, and responses, as well as timely documentation of how physicians respond both verbally and physically. If there is a significantly bad outcome due to substandard care, and there are appropriate expert plaintiff attorneys and expert witnesses, there is a high likelihood that when litigation does happen, it will rightfully result in favor of the plaintiff. The American legal system is known as the adversarial system having its origin in English law. The burden of proof rests with the plaintiff in the American judicial system; the degree to which this must be demonstrated, however, is variable. In law, however, the notion of legal cause is generally quite different than medical causation.
