Protecting Practice & Livelihood from Malpractice - High/Low Agreement. Medical Justice. Visit us online at [ Ссылка ] or call 877-633-5878.


How do doctors get their day in court to be vindicated without having to put their house or their nest egg at risk. Fortunately, there is something called a High/Low Agreement. It's been around for some time but it's very infrequently used. It's a technique that you must know about. The alternative is that you'll just write a check for a million dollars, the case goes away. But that doesn't feel good to a doctor who believes he did everything right in taking care of a patient.

It's a contract, an agreement, that each side enters into before court. So, the doctor still presents his case to the jury and the jury renders it's verdict. But ultimately what the doctor pays and what gets paid to the plaintiff is determined by this agreement.

Let me give you an example. So, the before picture is, could be anywhere from zero to ten million dollars. But with the agreement, it may have bookends of a hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars. So, in this particular case if the jury comes back and says, "The doctor is liable and owes ten million dollars." Because of the agreement the doctor only owes one million dollars. Policy limits. He does not lose his house. On the other hand, if the jury comes back and says the doctor wins and otherwise owes nothing to the plaintiff, here because of the agreement the insurance company needs to write a hundred thousand dollar check. So, the patient, or the plaintiff, walks away with something.

The good news is that even though that the patient receives some money, in this case a hundred thousand dollars, it's not reportable to the data bank.

A High/Low Agreement is something that you should talk about with your attorney in advance of going to trial.

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