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To the Editor: To better understand the surprising jury verdict described by Dr Merenstein,¹ we interviewed the lawyers and the judge in his case, reviewed the lawyers' proposed jury instructions and the parties' written submissions to a pretrial review panel, and read notes of the lawyers' interviews with 3 jurors (including the foreman). Our assessment is that Merenstein is unduly pessimistic about the role of EBM in medical malpractice cases.

Merenstein's trial established no legal principle about EBM, especially since no appeal was filed. The legal principles of a jury trial are contained in the judge's instructions to the jury, and these were entirely generic, providing nothing about EBM. A jury's view of the facts applies only to the particular case. Therefore, no legal rule adverse to EBM emerges from Merenstein's case.

But what does this jury's verdict tell us about how other juries might respond to physicians who practice . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Mark A. Hall, JD
mhall{at}law.wfu.edu

Michael D. Green, JD
Department of Public Health Sciences
Wake Forest University Schools of Medicine and Law
Winston-Salem, NC

Arthur Hartz, MD, PhD
Department of Family Medicine
University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City

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