Legal Role-Play:

Sue or Settle

$0.00$6.50

Seth Freeman, John Richardson, and Bruce Patton

Four-person, two-party, strategic decision-making exercise to highlight the cost-benefit analysis in determining whether to settle a medical malpractice case or to continue litigation

Quantity

Please note: you must order a copy (a.k.a. license/usage fee) for every person participating in the simulation in your course. This simulation has multiple roles, so you will be unable to complete your purchase without meeting the minimum quantity requirement of copies per role.

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SCENARIO:

Two surgeons mistakenly amputate the wrong (healthy) leg of a patient. They were found liable in a previous trial and ordered to pay $1 million in damages.

The controlling law in this case mandates a rule of strict contributory negligence. This means that whoever is found to be more responsible for the accident will have to pay the entire $1 million judgment. This exercise represents the current suit between the two surgeons to determine who will have to pay the judgment.

Each participant in this exercise plays either a surgeon or an attorney; and each surgeon-attorney pair is matched with a second surgeon-attorney pair in the lawsuit. The outcome of the lawsuit will be determined by comparing hands of playing cards. At each stage of the litigation, the surgeons must decide (with the advice of their attorneys) whether to proceed with the litigation or attempt to settle.

 

Teacher's Pack includes:

  • Confidential Instructions for the Client
  • Confidential Instructions for the Lawyer
  • No Teaching Note currently available

Sue or Settle Attributes

Time required: 30 minutes - 1 hour
Number of participants: 4
Teams involved: Yes
Agent present: Lawyer
Neutral third party present: None
Scoreable: Yes
Teaching notes available: No
Non-English version available: German