Reference
Medical Malpractice Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the legal and medical terms that shape malpractice litigation, settlements, and case strategy.
A
AB 35
California Assembly Bill 35, signed in May 2022, which amended MICRA to raise the state's noneconomic damages cap and create a tiered, annually escalating cap structure for medical malpractice cases.
Accident Year
An insurance accounting convention that groups claims by the calendar year in which the underlying event occurred, regardless of when the claim was reported or paid.
Affidavit of Merit
A sworn statement by a qualified expert, required at filing or shortly after in many states, attesting that the malpractice claim has reasonable factual and medical merit.
Anesthesia Malpractice
A medical malpractice allegation arising from negligent administration or monitoring of anesthesia, characterized by relatively low frequency but high median payouts.
B
C
Casualty Insurance
The broad category of insurance covering legal liability for losses caused to other persons or their property, including general liability, professional liability, workers' compensation, and auto liability.
Collateral Source Rule
A common-law doctrine that prevents a defendant from reducing damages by amounts the plaintiff received from independent sources such as health insurance, disability insurance, or government benefits.
Contingency Fee
A legal-fee arrangement in which the plaintiff's attorney is paid a percentage of the recovery, contingent on success, and typically advances all litigation costs.
Continuing Legal Education
State-mandated post-licensure educational requirements for practicing attorneys, typically measured in hours per year or per reporting cycle, often segmented into ethics, professionalism, and substantive credit categories.
D
Damages Cap
A statutory ceiling on the amount a plaintiff can recover for certain categories of damages, most commonly noneconomic damages, in medical malpractice cases.
Daubert Standard
The federal evidentiary test, from Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993), that requires expert testimony to be both relevant and reliable, with the trial judge serving as gatekeeper.
E
F
H
Hooper Engine
MedMalPredict's proprietary AI prediction system, trained on more than 220,000 historical medical malpractice cases, that produces jurisdiction-aware predictions for payment probability, payout range, and outcome severity.
Human Factors Analysis
MedMalPredict's structured framework for quantifying the subjective drivers of jury behavior (pain, lifestyle impact, family burden, jury appeal) and applying them as a 1.0x-2.5x multiplier on the base statistical prediction.
I
Industry Custom
The prevailing practice of a profession or industry, used as evidence of (but not conclusive proof of) the standard of care under the doctrine of T.J. Hooper.
Informed Consent
The legal and ethical doctrine requiring a healthcare provider to disclose the material risks, benefits, and alternatives of a proposed treatment so the patient can make a voluntary, knowing decision.
L
Loss of Consortium
A noneconomic damages claim brought by a spouse (and in some states a child or parent) for the loss of the injured plaintiff's companionship, affection, services, and intimacy.
Loss Reserves
Funds an insurance carrier sets aside to pay anticipated future indemnity and defense costs on reported but unresolved claims.
M
Medical Professional Liability
The insurance industry term for medical malpractice insurance and the broader category of professional liability claims against healthcare providers.
MICRA
California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975, the country's most influential statute capping noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases.
N
National Practitioner Data Bank
A federal repository operated by HRSA that collects reports of malpractice payments, adverse licensure actions, and clinical privileges actions against US healthcare practitioners.
Noneconomic Damages
Compensation awarded for non-monetary harm such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium, emotional distress, and diminished enjoyment of life, distinct from economic damages like medical bills and lost wages.
Nuclear Verdict
A jury verdict of $10 million or more, increasingly common in medical malpractice and other personal injury cases, often driven by aggressive plaintiff trial tactics and jury frustration with defendant conduct.
P
Pain and Suffering
The category of noneconomic damages compensating a plaintiff for physical pain, mental anguish, and diminished quality of life caused by negligent care.
Plaintiff Bar
The community of attorneys, firms, and supporting professionals who represent injured plaintiffs in tort cases, characterized in malpractice by tight relationships, contingency-fee economics, and aggressive trial culture.
Practitioner History
A practitioner's record of prior malpractice claims, settlements, verdicts, and adverse licensure actions, used as a predictive signal in case valuation and underwriting.
R
S
Severity (Insurance)
An insurance industry metric measuring the average dollar cost per claim within a given line of business, used by underwriters and analysts to track payout trends over time.
Standard of Care
The level of skill, diligence, and judgment a reasonably competent practitioner in the same specialty would exercise under similar circumstances, used as the benchmark for proving negligence in a malpractice case.
Statute of Limitations
The legal deadline by which a malpractice plaintiff must file suit, typically measured from the date of the negligent act or the date the injury was or should have been discovered.
Surgical Error
A category of medical malpractice allegation involving negligent acts during surgical procedures, including wrong-site surgery, retained foreign objects, intraoperative damage to non-target structures, and post-operative complications from technique errors.