Criminal Judgment of Medical Malpractice

Abstract

Unlike civil judgments, not all of criminal medical judgments are publicized.

According to documents released by public organizations, a total of 444 defendants were indicted for professional negligence in criminal judgment from 1950 to the end of 2017. Of these 444 defendants, 127 were taken to court and 23 won acquittals. In contrast, for general crimes, the Public Prosecutors Office demand a judgement for 8.3% of the cases that they received, and 99.8% of the cases on trial were found guilty. In criminal malpractice cases, several judgments of acquittal were made recently over medical skills. However, the rate of acquittals has been relatively invariable during this period. Although the number of reports of malpractice by medical institutions made to police has been decreasing since 2015, 58 cases have been referred to medico-legal autopsy, and the possibility that malpractice could be brought to criminal judgment still remains. This article examines responses to malpractice claims by medical institutions.