[Judicial claims for medical malpractice].

Background: Physicians' legal liability regarding malpractice has reached a previously unknown importance in Spain. This paper brings forward some statistical data on judicial claims presented by patients and their relatives.

Methods: The whole of resolutions of the First and Second Court of the Supreme Court were collected between 1870 and 1992. In Madrid, the number of lawsuits in proceedings were obtained from a sample of the Courts at the Plaza de Castilla in April 1990, and figures on legal complaints, accusations and demands were obtained through consultations at the Medical College.

Results: The great majority of verdicts, both in Civil and Penal Jurisprudence, correspond to the last 13 years. In Madrid, the average of penal cases in proceedings was 3.8 per Court, and an appreciable increase of claims can be noticed, with an annual rate of about 0.4 per 100 physicians.

Conclusions: Appealing to Justice in order to accuse a practitioner for presumed malpractice is no longer an unusual event. Various reasons contribute in this respect. However, other reasons exist to consider the Spanish situation very far from the level in the United States of America.