Data released this week by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court showed a sharp drop in malpractice lawsuits since reform measures took effect in 2003. The 1,815 suits filed last year was 34 percent lower than the average number of suits in 2000-2002.
A key provision of the reforms was to stop so-called "venue shopping" in which lawyers representing alleged malpractice victims found ways to move cases to Philadelphia, where juries are notoriously sympathetic to victims. Indeed, malpractice cases filed in Philadelphia in 2004 were down 54 percent from the 2000-2002 period the Supreme Court used as a basis point.
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