In almost all malpractice cases the defense will argue that there was no negligence, or even if there was negligence, the injury complained of was not caused by that conduct, but instead was caused by some other medical issue or some other doctor. A defense tactic often used is to find a way to blame the patient for the problem. Blaming the patient takes many forms, including that the patient was too fat, or too thin, or had unusual internal anatomy, was a smoker, a drinker, a drug abuser, or did not take their medicine as prescribed, or failed to tell the doctor something the patient should told them, or the patient failed to return to the office or for tests as instructed. These defenses are an attempt to put the patient on trial instead of the doctor, or at least to try to get the jury to divide responsibility between the patient and the doctor, which might lower the size of the verdict. Sometimes it works; sometimes it backfires.