Fact Checker: Insurance lawsuits

Factchecker.org has a post about a couple of ads from the insurance industry and trial lawyers battling the claims that out of control lawsuits are or are not driving up costs, and the claim from lawyers that insurance companies are still making huge profits despite the lawsuits.
FactChecker calls BS on both counts.
For the insurance ad:

Tillinghast-Towers Perrin released an annual report titled "U.S. Tort Costs," which put the direct cost of malpractice claims for 2003 at $26.5 billion. Tillinghast said that the overall cost of medical malpractice "translates to $91 per person." So for an average U.S. household, which the Census Bureau reported was 2.57 persons in 2003, that figures to $243.

But it turns out, even that $234 figure is too high for measuring "lawsuit abuse" as the ad claims. In fact, the study acknowledges that it includes all claims -- including those in which real malpractice occurred, and those that were settled before they ever resulted in a lawsuit. The introduction states that the costs " include far more than just the claims that are litigated" and "are not a reflection of the litigated claims or the legal system."

And for the trial lawyer ad:

We smell a rat when the ad claims "record profits" for the industry. In fact, the malpractice insurance industry has been losing money for the three most recent years on record.

And that's for the record.