“Venue Shopping” Brings a Flood of Medical Liability Lawsuits to Philadelphia

October 8, 2024

ISMIE is always monitoring the medical liability environment across the U.S. This is an update of a story we first highlighted last year on the practice environment in Pennsylvania.

In the summer of 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court changed a two-decade old rule that had required medical liability cases to be filed in the county where the alleged harm occurred. The ability to “venue shop” is now allowing cases to be moved to other locations, even if no care was provided there.

Because of this change, plaintiffs and their lawyers have brought hundreds of cases from all over Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, where plaintiff-friendly courts are known to routinely produce multimillion-dollar payouts. A recent analysis of court data by the Philadelphia Inquirer found that 43% of 657 medical liability complaints filed in Philadelphia between January 1, 2023 and April 2024 were based on care provided outside of the city. That’s almost half of the filed cases coming from elsewhere in the state.

Why is this bad? Aside from the expected higher costs for claims, Keystone State litigants will have to travel longer distances to deal with liability claims. As with all issues bearing on the litigation environment for our policy holders, ISMIE will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed.