Medical Malpractice: Coming Changes and Their Impact on Psychiatry

In 2024, the American Law Institute revised its influential Restatement of the Law for medical malpractice. The most important change is an updated standard for determining when a clinician is negligent, which emphasizes the failure to provide reasonable care, replacing the traditional standard of customary care. Determinations of reasonable care can consider evidence from the medical literature and practice guidelines, even if they have not yet generally been adopted in ordinary practice, as well as contextual factors. Although not yet incorporated into law, the new standard underscores the importance of clinicians staying current with changes in evidence-based practice.