Personal Injury Law

How can I find out if my physician has been sued for medical malpractice?

By Beth Janicek

There are several resources to research whether your physician has been sued.  They all have weaknesses and it is also important to remember that most all medical malpractice settlements are confidential.  One avenue to research is looking online at the county where the physician practices to see if there are any lawsuits listed.  In Bexar County, you can research this at Bexar County District Courts Civil Litigant Inquiry.  This website just identifies the lawsuits that have been filed and you would actually need to go to the courthouse to pull the case to see what it was about.  Other courthouses may allow you to access the papers filed online.  For example, the San Antonio Federal Courts can be accessed and all filings found for a case.  However, rarely is a medical malpractice case filed in federal court.

Another research tool to see if your doctor has been sued is accessing the state medical board's website.  In Texas, you can research this at Texas Medical Board.  However, this is not always a reliable resource.  I always research this website on any case I have but I routinely discover other cases against a physician that are not listed in this website.  I do not discover these other lawsuits until I have filed a lawsuit and I ask the question during a deposition of the doctor.

Lastly, there are websites that advertise they can provide this information but you have to pay for the service.  For example HealthGrades, I have found this website often has little more information then the Texas Medical Board.

In the end, all of these websites are good references to use but they are not perfect in discovering medical malpractice cases brought against your physician.  The state medical board websites are good at revealing whether there has been board action taken against your physician and this information may be more useful than whether your physician has been sued in a medical malpractice case. From a medical malpractice litigation standpoint, other lawsuits against the physician are rarely admissible. 

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on April 23, 2008 (boomark / email).