Venue changes the Pennsylvania Supreme Court enacted more than 15 years ago to combat what some saw as out-of-control medical malpractice litigation worked well. Possibly too well, according to some. And now a court rules committee for the high court is proposing to roll back some of those changes.

The state Supreme Court’s Civil Procedural Rules Committee last month proposed rule changes that would allow injured plaintiffs to sue in any venue where the health care provider defendants regularly do business. As the rules stand, plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases are limited to suing in the venue where the injury occurred.

…

However, Kline & Specter attorney Shanin Specter, who represents plaintiffs, contended that the argument that medical malpractice cases will spike if the current venue rules are repealed “is advocacy without evidence,” saying filings and insurance rates are both down from where they had been 17 years ago.

“I think there’s been unhappiness in the bar generally for the last 17 years about there being two sets of rules—one for health care providers and one for everybody else. So this change is a long time coming,” he said. “Obviously, it’s been apparently closely studied by the rules committee, which is made up of defense lawyers, plaintiffs lawyers and judges. It apparently has wide support from both sides of the bar and also the judiciary, and it makes good sense to me.”