In 2024, 1.8% of physicians were sued in the previous year, down from 2.3% in 2016 and a peak of 7.4% annually between 1991 and 2005, according to research from the American Medical Association.
The AMA published two policy research perspectives. The first studied patient care physicians in the U.S. between 2016 and 2024, which found the risk of being sued increases with years in practice. The second studied annual changes in medical liability insurance premiums between 2016 and 2025.
Here are 13 things to know from the reports:
1. As of 2024, 28.7% of physicians had been sued at least once in their career, down from 34% in 2016 and 42.2% in 2007 to 2008.
2. The average number of career claims filed stood at 56 per 100 physicians in 2024, down from 68 per 100 in 2016. Additionally, 65% of claims that closed between 2016 and 2018 were dropped, dismissed or withdrawn, meaning being sued is not necessarily indicative of medical error.
3. Only 11% of physicians under 45 years old have ever been sued, compared to 22.2% of those ages 45-54 and 45.2% of those 55 and older.
4. Male physicians were sued in the prior year at a rate of 2.2% versus 1% for female physicians, and 35.1% of male physicians have ever been sued compared to 20.6% of female physicians, but that gap shrinks by about half after controlling for age and specialty.
5. Nearly 60% of OB-GYNs have been sued at least once in their career, the highest of any specialty, followed by general surgeons at 53.1%. Among OB-GYNs and general surgeons age 55 and older, nearly 75% have faced a career lawsuit.
6. General surgeons lead all specialties in total claims filed at 177 per 100 physicians, followed by OB-GYNs at 139 per 100. Emergency medicine physicians have a 42.0% career sue rate and radiologists 38.2%, making them the next-highest risk specialties after surgical fields.
7. Only 4.5% of hematology and oncology physicians and 8.9% of endocrinologists have ever been sued, the lowest career rates of any specialty.
8. Physicians in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania face the highest regional risk, with 37.6% having ever been sued, compared to 26.0% in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
9. Medical liability premiums have risen for seven consecutive years since 2019, a trend not seen since the early 2000s. The share of premiums that increased year over year peaked at 49.8% in 2024 before easing to 39.9% in 2025, up sharply from just 13.7% in 2018.
10. Eleven states saw at least one premium increase of 10% or more in 2025, led by Pennsylvania, where 52.9% of premiums rose by at least 10% and the largest single increase was 29.6%.
11. Five states — Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois and New York — experienced large premium spikes in both 2024 and 2025, with Illinois seeing surges dating back to 2020.
12. In the Miami-Dade metro area OB-GYNs and general surgeons each faced manual premiums of $243,988 in 2025, while internal medicine physicians in the same area paid $59,736.
13. California, which caps noneconomic damages, remains the lowest-premium state — a Los Angeles OB-GYN paid $49,804 in 2025, a rate unchanged since 2016.