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35 Temp. L. Rev. 141 (1961-1962)
Malingering in Personal Injury Cases

handle is hein.journals/temple35 and id is 143 raw text is: 19621 MALINGERING IN PERSONAL INJURY CASES* FREDERICK D. LIPMAN t INTRODUCTION In 1959, 1.2 billion dollars (latest estimate) was paid to all workers in the nation who are under workmen's compensation laws.' Today, the figure must be substantially higher. The cost of work- men's compensation in 1948 was a billion dollars.' Today, insurance premiums alone amount to over two billion dollars.' It has been estimated that two out of every three court cases involve personal in- jury actions.4 If we add to the cost of workmen's compensation the billions of dollars which change hands every year in these cases we obtain a formidable total. With all this money involved one need not be a cynic to conclude that malingering is going to be a major problem facing both the legal and medical professions. Indeed, Garner ' estimates that malingering is costing American industry alone more than one and one half million dollars annually. There are few personal injury cases that reach courts or compensation boards where no allegation of malingering is ex- pressly or impliedly made. Despite the apparent importance of the problem to both pro- fessions, little has been written about it. The only medical treatises existing on the subject were written by English physicians prior to 1920.6 Keschner and Gray are the best recent authorities, but each devote only one chapter to the subject.T Gray, whose books are written * Based upon a paper submitted in the Seminar on Medico-Legal Problems at the Harvard Law School t LL.B. Harvard Law School 1960; member of the Philadelphia Bar. 1. National Safety Council, Accident Facts 24 (1961). Z 71 MONTHLY LAB R REvIEw 487 (1950). 3. NACCA 12th Annual Convention Proceedings sec. 15.3 (1958). 4. Horovitz, 10 NACCA UJ. 22 (1952). 5. Garner, Malingring, 2 Am. J. MED. JUR. 173, 177. This figure is disputed. See Part one, Section 1 on Frequency. 6. COLLIE, MALINGERING AND FEIGNED ILLNESS (2d ed. 1917); A. JONES AND LLEWELLYN, MALINGERi NG OR THE SIMU.ATION or DISEASE (1919). 7. Keschner, Simulation (Malingering) in Relation to Iniuries of the Skull, Brain, and Spinal Cord, in INJURIES OF THE SKULL, BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD 342 (Brock ed., 1943) (hereinafter cited as KESCHNER). See also Keschner, Simlation of Nervous and Mental Discase, 44 MICH. L REV. 715 (1946) (hereinafter. cited as 44 MIcH. L. REv.). GRAY, ATTORNEY'S TExTBOOK OF MEDICINE, C. 102 (3d ed., 1951). (141)

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