At the start of a trial, Gilman & Bedigian partner Briggs Bedigian said one of the first things he tells a jury is that medical care is expensive, and it’s not getting cheaper.

According to Bedigian and his co-counsel, Merritt Lentz and Jon Stefanuca, the ever-rising cost of health care is a major driver of climbing medical malpractice verdicts—verdicts like their recent $182.7 million win in a birth injury case against Penn Medicine.