Law is neither panacea nor justice. An element of calculation, it answers the "how" question, whereas justice answers the "why" question. Law is anything but simple. It is a piecemeal doctrinal construction, each part more readily explained by the circumstances of its addition than by its relation to a coherent whole. An up to date analysis of the court-visited 36 cases, this monograph depicts the challenges, and outcomes of surgical negligence claims in the States, by covering a range of malpractice determinants: plaintiff's reasonableness, surgeon's state of mind, res ipsa loquitur, strict liability, qualifications of the witness-expert, plain-error doctrine, but-for rule and proximate causation, patent law and infringement, defamation, conspiracy, fraud, taxation of the awards, and the dicta.