Sometimes, when confronted with such assertions, doctors lash out. It’s the system’s fault. It’s the lawyers. It’s greedy patients. But these declarations ignore one important fact: Lawsuits aren’t random. Some doctors are sued far more than others.

As far back as 1989, a study of obstetricians in Florida found that about 6 percent of obstetricians accounted for more than 70 percent of all malpractice-related expenses over a five-year period. These physicians did not just have a short run of bad luck. A follow-up study found that one of the most significant predictors of being sued was being sued in the past. Doctors who are sued are different in some way from those who aren’t.

Now it’s possible that these physicians were bad doctors, and that they deserved this. If that’s the case, then this is the malpractice system operating efficiently, and no one would have any reason to complain. But this relationship held true for both paid and unpaid claims. Some doctors were more likely to be sued, regardless of whether the cases against them were eventually found to have merit.

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