To the surprise of absolutely no one, except perhaps some plaintiffs’ attorneys in denial, medical liability case filings in Philadelphia surged in January compared to the same period in 2022.
According to data from a PCCJR analysis, the number of medical malpractice case filings in Philadelphia in January of this year has more than tripled compared to those filed in January of 2022. There were 58 medical malpractice cases filed this past month, whereas there were only 15 filed during the same time period last year.
It’s important to note that Philadelphia has a separate category for complaints filed against nursing homes. The “Nursing Home” cases appear to also be medical liability cases. For the purpose of this analysis, there were 9 such Nursing Home Litigation cases filed in both January of 2023 and January of 2022. When adding these figures to the blanket medical malpractice case numbers listed above, the total Philadelphia medical liability filings for January of 2023 is 67 compared to 24 for January of 2022. This represents a 2.8 times increase over the January 2022 figures.
The 2022 data was taken from a search of the Courthouse News Service database. The 2023 figures are based on daily Courthouse News Service reports for Philadelphia Common Pleas civil filings. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas has long had the notorious reputation of being a high-verdict court system. Now thanks to the return of venue shopping which the previous medical liability venue rule prevented, the number of cases filed in this jurisdiction is skyrocketing.
PCCJR will continue to monitor the impact of the rescission of the venue rule – including tracking the number of medical malpractice cases filed in Philadelphia – which is the epicenter of nuclear verdicts in the Commonwealth – and providing analysis of how these figures compare to previous years.