Medical error in the courts: an analysis of the decisions of the Court of Justice of the Brazilian Federal District

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze medical errors and the response of the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT) from 2002 to 2019. This is a documentary, qualitative, and retrospective study performed using procedural documents of the lawsuits subjected to the TJDFT. The following variables were considered: medical specialty, type of damage caused, public or private health professional, type of the plaintiff’s claim, court decision, amount of compensation, and others. Data were obtained from the TJDFT website-which provides full case files-and analyzed by descriptive statistics. The number of lawsuits involving medical error increases in the studied court and judges tend to sentence higher compensations to public professionals. The final court decision of most cases analyzed was unfavorable to the plaintiff and even those that were successful showed a reduction of about 30% in the amount of compensation requested. Claims for moral and material damages were the most common. The number of lawsuits involving medical error judged over the last 17 years by the TJDFT increased exponentially and became a new way to judicialize health.