Medical malpractice case filings fell sharply in Philadelphia’s suburban counties in 2023
The decline in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties happened as the number of cases in Philadelphia surged.
The number of medical malpractice filings fell nearly by half last year in Philadelphia’s suburban counties, while they almost doubled in the city, according to Pennsylvania Supreme Court data released Monday.
This dramatic shift followed the end of a special rule for health-care lawsuits that had required malpractice cases to be filed in the county were the injury happened. Now, cases can filed in any county where a defendant does business, as is the case in other industries.
As a result, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties in 2023 collectively saw a 49% decline from the prior year in the number of medical malpractice cases filed, to 123 from 239. The number of cases in Philadelphia, by contrast, increased 97% to 541 from 275, state data show.
Because of hospital consolidation, many cases against the Philadelphia region’s big systems like Jefferson Health and Penn Medicine are coming to Philadelphia, even if treatment at issue occurred in another county. This is because Philadelphia juries sometimes award larger verdicts than those in the suburbs. That potential also leads to bigger settlements, experts say.
Montgomery County had the biggest decline in malpractice case filings last year. Cases there fell by 56%, to 52 from 118. Delaware County was close behind, posting a 54% decline in cases, to 18 from 39.
Philadelphia courts are on track to see 600 new medical malpractice cases this year, a 46% increase from the annual average in the three years before the pandemic, Daniel J. Anders, administrative judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court’s trial division, said last month.