Stare decisis is a legal principle that allows for observance of precedence set in previous court rulings (Fremgen, 2009). Stare decisis promotes following decisions as previously determined and then reapplied to the current situation given that the material facts involved with the case are the same (Perell, 1987). While all facts are not likely to be repeated exactly, the basic material facts may help to determine whether the case at hand follows the principle of stare decisis.
Within the medical field, stare decisis plays an important role as cases decided years ago may apply to current litigation. If a case was previously decided as holding a physician liable for injury, it is likely that the courts would also apply the same judgment to other cases with the same material facts. For example, if a surgeon mistakenly removed the wrong limb of a patient, was sued and found liable for damages, then it would be reasonable to assume that in other cases of harm caused by medical professionals that the courts would rule in favor of the plaintiff.
The principle of stare decisis is beneficial to the United States legal system because it allows for consistency and predictability within the judicial system. By following precedence, the system is simplified because clear examples of legal and societal expectations are maintained. By having a basis for making decisions, the courts are able to expedite decisions, and members of society have reasonable expectations that certain activities will have logical results. This allows the system to offer deterrents to negative behaviors because, based on the principle of precedence, the parties involved may be fairly certain of the outcome. Another benefit of stare decisis is to minimize cost of additional lawsuits when similar cases have been previously decided. This may encourage settling without litigation and may discourage ungrounded lawsuits.
References
Fremgen, B. (2009). Medical law and ethics (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health.
Perell, P. (1987). Stare decisis and techniques of legal reasoning and legal argument. Retrieved 14 November 2009 from: http://www.legalresearch.org/docs/perell.html
