In 2004, personal injury lawyers spent $3.8 million on television ads like this one to attract clients for medical malpractice contingency lawsuits.
In 2005, they spent ten times that amount: $38 million.
As of September 1, 2009, they had already spent $46 million, and they will have spent about $62 million on such ads by year’s end.
The numbers come from a study released today by the Chamber of Commerce, based on a study of the ads run by more than 560 network affiliates and major independent stations nationwide. Given the trend so far this year, medical malpractice lawyers are expected to run 166,000 such spots in markets nationwide.
Medical malpractice law has been a growth industry lately, and contributes to runaway medical inflation. But President Obama has resisted addressing this part of the problem in his health insurance reform plans. Lawyers and law firms didn’t give his campaign $43 million last year — nearly twice the amount given by any other industry — only to have him turn around and force “change” on them.
