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9 Alaska L. Rev. 429 (1992)
Alternative Dispute Resolution Strategies in Medical Malpractice

handle is hein.journals/allr9 and id is 435 raw text is: COMMENT ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION STRATEGIES IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE THOMAS B. METZLOFF* I. INTRODUCTION Perhaps no other litigation area has been the subject of as much interest in reform as has medical malpractice. A distinct element of this interest has centered on efforts to change the process by which malpractice cases are handled. Since the mid-1970's, virtually every state has attempted some type of tort reform intended to impact the manner in which medical malpractice suits are handled.' In light of the incredible growth in the use Copyright © 1992 by Alaska Law Review * Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law, and Director, The Medical Malpractice Program for the Private Adjudication Center. The Center is a non-profit affiliate of the Duke University School of Law involved in teaching, researching, and providing services relating to ADR. In 1987, the Center received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study existing litigation procedures and to develop ADR methods for malpractice cases. Under the auspices of that program, the Center has advised litigants in numerous medical malpractice cases on ADR options. This article developed from a presentation that the author made to the Alaska Health Resources & Access Task Force in Anchorage on October 22, 1992. The author appreciates the insights about the Alaskan situation shared with him by members of the Alaska Trial Lawyers' Association, the Alaska Medical Society and Dr. Rodman Wilson, a long-time advocate for health care and malpractice reform in Alaska. The author would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Nancy Cornwell, Project Director, Health Resources & Access Task Force. Finally, the author wishes to thank Jon Aronie, Debbie Munsen, and Jenny Bogdes, staff members with the Alaska Law Review, for their assistance in the preparation of this comment. 1. For discussions of malpractice reform efforts including descriptions of procedural changes, see U.S. GEm. Accr. OFF., MEDICAL MALPRACrICE: A FRAMEWORK FOR ACrION (1987) [hereinafter FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION]; PAUL C. WEILER, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ON TRIAL (1991); Glen 0. Robinson, The Medical Malpractice Crisis of the 1970's: A Retrospective, 49 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS., Spring 1986, at 5; Walter J. Wadlington, Legal Responses to Patient Injury: A Future Agenda for Research and Reform, 54 LAW & CONMrEP. PROBS., Spring 1991, at 199.

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