Each case, regardless of number or types of plaintiffs, was given one plaintiff designation from the following hierarchy: hospital, business, government, or individual. Similarly, each was also given a single defendant designation. A case with multiple types of plaintiffs or defendants was assigned the designation of whichever type appears first in that hierarchy. For example, any case involving a hospital defendant is categorized as a hospital even if there were also business, individual, or government defendants in the case.
"Hospital" includes medical companies. "Business" includes insurance companies, banks and financial companies, other businesses, and other organizations. "Individual" includes estates.
Here are the related codes:
PLTYPE PLAINTIFF TYPE 251 251 F1 1 HOSPITAL 2 BUSINESS 3 GOVERNMENT 4 INDIVIDUAL DEFTYPE DEFENDANT TYPE 252 252 F1 1 HOSPITAL 2 BUSINESS 3 GOVERNMENT 4 INDIVIDUAL