DEALING WITH THE “ERROR OF JUDGMENT” DEFENSE IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES
A common defense in medical malpractice cases is to assert the cause of the injury was an unintended outcome following medical judgment regarding acceptable choices between alternative medical judgments. Some states, like Washington, approve a jury instruction on this concept. Washington Pattern Jury Instruction 105.08 “Exercise of Judgment” provides: “A physician is not liable for selecting one of two or more alternative [courses of treatment] [diagnoses], if, in arriving at the judgment to [follow the particular course of treatment] [make the particular diagnosis], the…