Medical-malpractice lawyers told the Daily Report in recent conversations that the ice is breaking after a deep freeze on litigation activity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“In the medical-malpractice world, for me and some of my friends, it truly was like a faucet was turned off” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, said Marc Howard of Pope & Howard, whose partner is Geoffrey Pope. For med mal especially, no trial dates mean no incentive for the defense to settle cases in progress, he said.