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In law, malpractice is type of tort
in which the misfeasance, mailfeasance or nonfeasance of a professional under a duty to act fails to follow generally accepted
professional standards. It is committed by a professional or her/his subordinates on behalf of a client or patient that causes
damages to the client or patient. Perhaps the most publicized forms are medical malpractice and legal
malpractice by medical practitioners and lawyers respectively, though accountants (Arthur Andersen) and investment advisors (Merrill
Lynch) have been in the news lately.
Lawsuit abuse increases the cost of health care and threatens access to health care for all Americans. Studies show that very
few medical liability lawsuits stem from true malpractice, and very few cases of actual malpractice end up in suits. The
cost of defensive medicine, in which physicians order tests or treatments for medico-legal rather than clinical reasons,
has been documented to be as large as $50 billion per year.
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