GAVEL RESTING ON REFLECTIVE BENCH SURFACE WITH AMERICAN FLAG IN BACKGROUND (Photo by ClassicStock/Getty Images) HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania's highest court on Thursday reversed its own two-decade-old rule that required medical malpractice cases to be filed in the county where the alleged harm occurred, a win for civil plaintiffs and the lawyers who represent them but a potentially costly change for health care providers.The decision by the state Supreme Court is likely to mean the number of such lawsuits will increase in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where jurors are considered to be more sympathetic to patients and more likely to produce larger verdicts.The justices sided with a recommendation from their own Civil Procedural Rules Committee.
In a report issued by the committee, its majority argued that medical malpractice cases should be subject to the same rules as other types of civil litigation."There appears to be a misconception that patients harmed by the negligent actions of healthcare providers somehow enjoy a windfall verdict in more populous counties," the committee majority wrote in its report.