Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Claims Data: The 2024 Numbers

By John Mahoney · October 27, 2026 · About 11 minutes

Pennsylvania publishes medical malpractice claims data from two directions. The courts count the cases: the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts reports filings by county back to 2000 and lists every jury and non-jury verdict by size. The Insurance Department counts the money: the Mcare Fund, which pays the excess layer on most Pennsylvania claims, reports claims opened and closed, dollars paid by territory, and the assessment it charges providers. This article sets out what the most recent reports show and the rules that produce the numbers. Every figure is from a linked public source; where a figure could not be sourced, it is not here.

Where the numbers come from

• The AOPC medical malpractice statistics page, which links Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Case Filings 2000–2024 (Table 1), Medical Malpractice Jury Verdicts 2024 (Table 2) and Non-Jury Verdicts 2024 (Table 3), all updated December 3, 2025. A filing is "the commencement of a civil action by complaint or praecipe for writ of summons," adjusted for transfers between districts; dental cases "may be included in some county counts."
• The Pennsylvania Insurance Department's Mcare Fund 2024 Annual Report, covering the fund as of December 31, 2024.
• The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas' November 20, 2024 medical malpractice program presentation: monthly filings, settlements and the verdict split.
• The rules: Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 (certificate of merit) and the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (Mcare) Act, Act 13 of 2002, sections 505, 512 and 513.
• The federal National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use Data File and Data Analysis Tool.

Filings in 2024: 1,548 statewide, 616 in Philadelphia

Table 1 lists 1,548 medical malpractice filings statewide in 2024, up from 1,485 in 2023 and 1,332 in 2022. The 2022 figure was the lowest in the series; 2024 is the highest since 2018 (1,579). Against the 2000–2002 average of 2,733 a year, the baseline the series uses, 2024 is down 43.4 percent; the count has been between about 1,330 and 1,700 every year since 2005.

Philadelphia County recorded 616 filings in 2024, after 541 in 2023 and 275 in 2022. That is 39.8 percent of the statewide total from one county, and more than double the 2022 count. Philadelphia's own court, in its November 2024 program presentation, describes 2024 as "nearly 600 new medical malpractice cases," a "46% increase from new cases filed in 2017–2019 (pre-pandemic)" and a "10% increase from new cases filed in 2023 (post-venue rule change)." The presentation's month-by-month table shows 2023 opening with 70 filings in January, against 18 to 28 a month through 2022.

Allegheny County recorded 306 filings in 2024, up from 261 in 2023 and 236 in 2022, and the highest Allegheny count since 2010 (326). Philadelphia and Allegheny together accounted for 922 of the 1,548 filings, 59.6 percent of the state.

The county pattern

From Table 1, the largest counties and the Philadelphia suburbs, where the movement since 2022 runs the other way.

Montgomery County fell from 118 filings in 2022 to 42 in 2024; Delaware from 39 to 17; Chester from 37 to 12. The suburban decline and the Philadelphia increase are one movement seen from two sides; the AOPC's transfer adjustment counts a case once, where it ends up.

Jury verdicts in 2024

Table 2 lists 89 medical malpractice jury verdicts statewide in 2024. Of those, 67 (75.3 percent) were defense verdicts. The 22 plaintiff verdicts break down as 4 at $500,000 or less, 7 from $500,000 to $1 million, 4 from $1 million to $5 million, 5 from $5 million to $10 million and 2 over $10 million. So about one jury verdict in four went to the plaintiff, and about one in twelve exceeded $1 million.

Philadelphia accounted for 30 of the 89 verdicts: 21 defense (70.0 percent), two plaintiff verdicts in each band from $500,000 up to $10 million, and one over $10 million. Allegheny had 6 verdicts, 4 for the defense; Lehigh's 8 and Bucks' 4 were all defense verdicts. Table 3 lists a single non-jury verdict for the year, in the $1 million to $5 million band. The AOPC's note belongs next to the numbers: verdict amounts "do not reflect post-trial settlements or actions of an appellate court" and "are not a report of actual payouts."

The Philadelphia court's presentation gives the same picture from inside the courthouse: "73% defense/27% plaintiff in 2024 YTD," against a "2014–2024 average of 63% defense/37% plaintiff," alongside "29.6 monthly settlements in 2024 YTD" compared with 23.9 in 2023 and 17.3 in 2022. The 89 verdicts sit on top of roughly 1,500 filings a year; nearly everything else settles or is dismissed.

The Mcare Fund: claims, payments and the assessment

Mcare is a special fund inside the Insurance Department, created by Act 13 of 2002 to replace the CAT Fund that had existed since 1975. Participation is mandatory "for hospitals, nursing homes, birth centers, and primary health centers, and for licensed physicians, podiatrists and certified nurse midwives who conduct 50% or more of their health care business within the Commonwealth." Each participant buys primary coverage, and "the primary insurer is responsible for providing the defense and the first $500,000 of indemnity"; Mcare pays the excess above that, the 2002 Act having "reduced the overall coverage limit from $1.2 million to $1 million." The Deloitte actuarial analysis appended to the report assumes primary limits "will increase to $750,000 in 2026 through 2028 and then to $1 million in 2029," subject to the Commissioner's capacity finding; every study so far has left the limits unchanged.

The 2024 counts. Mcare "opened 2,613 claims reported by primary insurers between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024," against 2,581 the year before, and "closed 3,459 claims in the 2024 claims period compared to 2,604." Those closures include claims closed with and without a Mcare payment; 132 primary insurers reported claims.

The 2024 payments. "Total payments for claims finalized during claims year 2024 were $275 million as compared to $242 million for claims finalized in claims year 2023." The ten-year table in Appendix A.2 shows liability claims paid, in millions, of 160, 174, 181, 211, 191, 170, 141, 172, 242 and 275 for 2015 through 2024. The report attributes the jump to "higher than historical average payment activity on excess claims," which it calls "the highest observed since at least calendar year 2009 and indicative of a potential catch up in claims activity from the COVID-19 pandemic."

Where the money went. Chart 2 allocates the $275,073,155 by JUA territory: $132,444,883 to Territory 1, which is Philadelphia alone (48.1 percent of the total); $30,622,800 to Allegheny; $44,914,791 to Territory 6 (Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Lehigh, Erie and seven others); and $30,427,309 to the 40 counties of the remainder. The Eastern region took 63.18 percent of 2024 payments, up from 47.17 percent in 2023.

Who pays. Mcare is pay-as-you-go and holds no reserves. It is funded by an assessment on the prevailing primary premium: 26 percent in 2024, up from 19 percent in 2023 and 12 percent in 2022, producing $272.8 million against $194.9 million the year before. For the first time since 2004 the fund borrowed, $60 million from the AutoCAT Fund in October 2023, and repaid $10 million in December 2024. Deloitte puts the unfunded liability at $1.159 billion as of December 31, 2023. The fund counted 48,904 participating providers in 2024, including 46,580 physicians and 186 hospitals.

The rules that shape the numbers

• Certificate of merit. Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3(a) requires the plaintiff, "with the complaint or within sixty days after the filing of the complaint," to file a certificate that "an appropriate licensed professional has supplied a written statement that there exists a reasonable probability that the care, skill or knowledge exercised or exhibited in the treatment, practice or work that is the subject of the complaint, fell outside acceptable professional standards and that such conduct was a cause in bringing about the harm," or that the claim is purely vicarious, or that expert testimony is unnecessary; one certificate per licensed professional defendant. Under subdivision (d) the court "upon good cause shown, shall extend the time for filing a certificate of merit for a period not to exceed sixty days." The official note says the professional supplying the statement against a physician "should meet the qualifications set forth in Section 512 of the" Mcare Act. The certificate of merit guide covers the filing sequence.
• Expert qualifications. Mcare Act section 512 requires an expert on a medical matter to "possess an unrestricted physician's license" and to "be engaged in or retired within the previous five years from active clinical practice or teaching"; an expert on the standard of care must also "practice in the same subspecialty as the defendant physician or in a subspecialty which has a substantially similar standard of care," and, if the defendant is board certified, be certified by the same or a similar board, with waivers in subsections (d) and (e).
• Statute of repose. Section 513: "no cause of action asserting a medical professional liability claim may be commenced after seven years from the date of the alleged tort or breach of contract," except foreign objects; a minor has until seven years or age 20, whichever is later; death and survival actions must be commenced within two years after the death absent fraudulent concealment.
• Punitive damages. Section 505: punitive damages require "willful or wanton conduct or reckless indifference," gross negligence is insufficient, and "except in cases alleging intentional misconduct, punitive damages against an individual physician shall not exceed 200% of the compensatory damages awarded"; 25 percent of any punitive award is paid to the Mcare Fund.
• No cap on compensatory damages. The Pennsylvania state page covers the absence of a compensatory cap, the two-year limitation period and the practical sequence of a case.

The federal data: NPDB

The AOPC counts cases and verdicts; Mcare counts claims that reached its layer and the dollars it paid. Neither reports settlements paid entirely within the primary $500,000. The National Practitioner Data Bank fills part of that gap: its Public Use Data File holds de-identified malpractice payment reports on individual practitioners, refreshed quarterly, and the Data Analysis Tool filters by state and profession and exports to CSV. This article does not quote Pennsylvania totals from the NPDB because they are generated interactively; pull them yourself and record the date and settings. Two cautions: a hospital payment with no practitioner named is not in the NPDB, and NPDB counts will not match the AOPC's or Mcare's because they count different things over different periods. The NPDB reporting guide explains what triggers a report.

How to use the numbers in a case

Aggregate data does not value a case. What it does is describe the system a Pennsylvania claim moves through, and three features of that system are visible in the 2024 reports.

First, venue is the story of the filing data. Four in ten Pennsylvania malpractice cases are now filed in Philadelphia, six in ten in Philadelphia or Allegheny, and the Philadelphia court's own material ties the shift to the venue rule change. Nearly half of Mcare's 2024 payments went to Philadelphia cases. Where a case can be filed is the first question on both sides.

Second, trial is rare and the defense usually wins it. Eighty-nine jury verdicts against roughly 1,500 filings, three-quarters for the defense, and about thirty settlements a month in Philadelphia alone: the realistic path is a negotiated resolution, and leverage in that negotiation is a record that survives an expert's reading. Mcare says it "actively promoted global resolution through settlement, arbitration, and mediation," so on any claim likely to exceed $500,000 there is a second payer at the table with its own examiners.

Third, the clock runs from filing. The certificate of merit is due within sixty days of the complaint, with one sixty-day extension on motion, and the expert who supports it has to meet section 512. The record review that produces that statement therefore has to be done before filing, not after. The Case Analysis tool reads the medical record and the intake facts, identifies the standard-of-care questions at each decision point with the page cited, and organizes them in the form an expert needs to decide whether a certificate can be signed. It does not predict a verdict; the numbers above are the closest anyone can get to that, and they are averages over hundreds of cases that are nothing like yours.

Frequently asked questions

Sources. Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, Medical Malpractice Statistics: Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Case Filings 2000–2024 (Table 1), Medical Malpractice Jury Verdicts 2024 (Table 2), Medical Malpractice Non-Jury Verdicts 2024 (Table 3), each updated December 3, 2025. Pennsylvania Insurance Department, Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund 2024 Annual Report (cover letter; sections III, IV.A, IV.B, V, VI; Charts 1–3; Appendices A.2 and C.6; Deloitte Exhibit D.1). Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia's Medical Malpractice Case Management Program: Expectations for 2025 (November 20, 2024). 231 Pa. Code Rule 1042.3 (quoted). Act 13 of 2002 (Mcare Act), sections 505, 512, 513 (quoted). National Practitioner Data Bank, Public Use Data File and Data Analysis Tool. Percentages in the text are computed from the reports' own counts and are rounded. No NPDB state totals are quoted because they are generated interactively; no figures from law-firm or insurance marketing pages are used.

MedLegal AI is software, not a law firm. This article is general information for attorneys, paralegals, legal nurse consultants and patients; it is not legal or medical advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Verify every statute, rule and figure against the current source before relying on it. Questions: [email protected]