NEWS

New MPL Data Shows Large Verdicts Remaining Elevated

September 21, 2026

Fewer physicians are being sued for malpractice, but hospitals and medical liability insurers continue to face rising severity because the claims that reach large verdicts are becoming substantially more expensive.

An August MPL Association analysis of the hospital professional liability environment reports that the average of the 50 largest U.S. medical malpractice verdicts rose from $32 million in 2022 to $48 million in 2023 and $56 million in 2024. At the same time, AMA data cited in the report show that the percentage of practicing physicians sued for malpractice fell from 2.3% in 2016 to 1.6% in 2024.

For retail agents, the contrast is important. Lower claim frequency does not necessarily translate into lower MPL loss costs when a smaller number of severe cases can create extraordinary financial exposure.

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Large Verdicts Are Becoming a Broader Severity Problem

More recent verdict data suggest that severity is no longer being driven only by an occasional headline-making award.

Through June 30, 2026, the MPL Association counted 26 verdicts of at least $10 million, including 10 of $25 million or more, four of at least $50 million, and two exceeding $100 million. During each year from 2023 through 2025, nearly half of all verdicts reaching $10 million also exceeded $25 million. The Association describes the trend as a growing “frequency of severity.”

Even the decline in the average of the 50 largest verdicts—from $56 million in 2024 to $49 million in 2025—does not necessarily signal meaningful relief. The median verdict among awards of at least $5 million rose from approximately $11 million in 2019 to $16 million in 2025.

The MPL Association’s latest verdict analysis argues that elevated severity is spreading farther through the distribution rather than being confined to only the most extreme cases.

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Certain Clinical Exposures Remain Especially Vulnerable

Surgery, birth-related claims, and failure to diagnose accounted for 80 of the 100 largest annual verdicts identified from 2016 through 2025.

Geography also matters, although extreme verdicts are not confined to a handful of traditionally difficult jurisdictions. Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and New York accounted for 46 of those 100 verdicts, while the remaining 54 were distributed among other states.

That dispersion matters to underwriting. A hospital or healthcare system cannot assume that catastrophic severity is primarily somebody else’s venue problem.

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Hospital Risk Extends Beyond the Individual Physician

Large hospital professional liability claims frequently involve more than one clinician or one disputed medical decision. Staffing, communication, documentation, supervision, patient handoffs, institutional protocols, and system-level failures can all become part of a plaintiff’s case.

That is one reason hospital risk management is increasingly being approached as an enterprise issue rather than an isolated claims function. The MPL Association reports that health systems are examining clinical risk alongside operational, workforce, technology, financial, and regulatory exposures that can influence patient outcomes and liability.

For retail agents working with hospitals, facilities, and larger medical groups, those factors can also affect underwriting presentations. A carrier assessing a complex organization needs to understand not simply its historical losses, but how the organization identifies problems, responds to adverse events, documents care, and reduces recurrence.

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What Does Rising Severity Mean for MPL Placements?

Large jury verdicts do not automatically become equivalent insurer payments. Awards can be reduced through post-trial motions, appeals, settlements, statutory limits, or coverage determinations.

But verdict trends still matter because they influence reserving, reinsurance, limit management, pricing, and carrier appetite. The MPL Association specifically identifies those areas as potential consequences of the growing severity pattern.

For Western Summit and its retail partners, that makes the details behind a hospital or facility risk increasingly important. Strong clinical controls, clear documentation, favorable claims narratives, and thoughtful limit structures cannot eliminate verdict severity, but they can give underwriters a better basis for distinguishing one organization from another.

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Lower Frequency Does Not Equal Lower Exposure

The current verdict environment illustrates why claim frequency and claim severity have to be considered separately.

Physicians may be facing malpractice suits less frequently than they did a decade ago, but the financial consequences of serious claims continue to grow. For hospitals and healthcare systems capable of producing complex, multi-defendant losses, that changing severity profile can materially influence underwriting long before the next claim occurs.