Assisting plaintiff & defense attorneys
with medical and nursing issues of their
legal cases.
• Initial case reviews
• Locate appropriate experts
• Preparation of timelines & summaries
• Medical literature research
• Other services on request
Call today to discuss your case.
Why do this alone when
you could have experienced
nursing staff on your side?
organization. Again, note that requirements for accreditation are the same
throughout the country.
The defendant’s practice or other
local practices may be affiliated with
large, city-based medical organizations
that have relationships and referral networks to medical specialists and institutions. These connections may link
the expert to the defendant’s medical
community or demonstrate how their
practices are similar.
The expert’s familiarity with the
defendant’s standard of care might also
be established by showing that
• both the expert’s and the defendant’s communities are within about
the same distance of major hospitals
and major trauma centers.
• the defendant and the expert went
to similar medical schools and completed similar residency programs.
• the expert teaches medical students
who practice all over the country.
• the expert attends continuing medical education programs and refresher
courses that are offered nationwide.
• doctors in the defendant’s and
expert’s field read the same peer-reviewed medical journals and regularly speak with each other or attend
seminars together.
• the expert has trained other doctors
in the procedures at issue.
• the key medical issue in the case is
not an esoteric problem: Treatment
for the patient’s condition was commonly known and has been seen in
medical literature and practice for
many years.
Causation and damages. If you have
designated the witness as an expert on
causation and damages, do not gloss over
them because your focus is on violations
of the standard of care. Explain what
causation means in the legal context—
for example, a proximate cause versus
the proximate cause.
Also, explain the concept of “but for”
causation. The expert should be prepared to testify that the negligent act
was the cause of the injury and that the
injury would not have occurred if it were
not for (“but for”) the negligent act.
Have the expert explain to you which
damages were caused by negligence, which
are unrelated, and whether any damages
are due to both negligence and a preexisting condition but cannot be broken down
any further. Go over this material before
the deposition, and make sure your expert
can articulate the differences.
Review the required language for
testifying regarding medical bills—
“reasonable, necessary, and causally
related to the plaintiff’s injuries within
a reasonable degree of medical certainty
or probability.”
Wrap It Up
Make sure to do a final review of all the
most important areas you’ve covered
with your witness. As part of this review,
anticipate the defense’s arguments. A
good way to do this is through a mock
question-and-answer session. This will
allow the expert to become familiar with
the defense’s questioning style and will
also let you evaluate whether additional
preparation is required.
These suggestions are not exhaustive
but should give you a good starting point
for conducting your expert preparation
sessions. A careful review of the relevant
documents, an organized way of getting
them to your expert, and a grounding
in the basics of the law—these are the
building blocks of your expert-prep
strategy and should become part of your
routine trial preparation. The result will
be a more relaxed and better-prepared
witness, fewer headaches for you, and a
stronger case for your client.
Christian C. Mester is a partner at
Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester in Silver
Spring, Maryland. He can be reached
at cmester@gfmlawllc.com.
