I don't share your vision of billion dollar lawsuits, though I know that lawyers go for the gold. I found a surprising consensus about the cost of malpractice suits among a variety of sources. 30-80 billion isn't chump change, but it's a rounding error (two sources said that) considering the gigantic cost of health care. I don't want to look it up again, but I think I remember for the US it's 18% of GDP. So 1.5% of that would be 0.003% of GDP approximately. Malpractice is a constant in health care - ask any nurse. One I knew told me that a mistake in filling an IV bag with the wrong chemical killed a patient's entire gut. Of course the patient died, we need our guts. This happens from time to time, and those who are damaged need money to live, or their survivors want justice.