Overview of professional liability

Eighty-nine percent of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists fellows responding to the 2006 Professional Liability Survey indicated that they had been sued during their careers. Thirty-seven percent had at least one claim from residency, and there were an average of 2.6 claims per obstetrician. Sixty-two percent of these claims were from obstetrics as opposed to gynecology The articles in this issue discuss various areas of perinatal medicine from the medical and legal perspectives, emphasizing those issues in maternal-fetal medicine that are the most frequent subjects of medical malpractice litigation.