Court Decisions on Medical Malpractice in China After the New Tort Liability Law.

A new Tort Law of the People's Republic of China became effective on July 1, 2010. We undertook an analysis of medical malpractice lawsuits brought before regional courts in Beijing districts after this new Tort Liability Law went into effect. In total, 726 cases eventuating in a final verdict were collected from the Beijing district courts from 2011 to 2013 in this retrospective study; 83.7% of the 726 alleged instances of medical malpractice were confirmed to be malpractice by the final verdict. The disciplines most frequently involved with claims of medical malpractice were obstetrics and gynecology, the most frequent outcomes was death, and the most common types of case associated with malpractice was surgery related. The average length of time between the occurrence of the injury and closure of the claim was 9.2 months, and the average payment was ¥163,000. Since the introduction of the new Tort Liability Law, the average time to complete a litigation was shortened, but it has made little apparent difference otherwise.