No this is an “expert” to review and decipher the f/ing chart for you since you can’t read or understand it.

Seriously, have you read medical records? They are about as incomprehensible to most people as many legal pleadings are to laymen.

” If the illness/injury is so ill-defined that it cannot be accurately understood through written records, then the legal team should arrange to have their own expert examine the patient and give testimony.”

Are you serious with this statement? I thought physicians hated the expert system – thought we needed to get rid of the paid “whores”. Yet now you’re advocating it because you don’t want to testify? I think you just unwittingly illustrated the hypocrisy of the physicians’ position.

An expert who has not treated the patient over time and probably has only reviewed the records and met with the patient once will not have near the impact or credibility of the treating physician. Wouldn’t you want your treating physician to testify for you if you were the injured person?

That’s a great story. So because you don’t believe on patient you’re making a blanket decision on all of them? Should the same standard be applied to physicians?

Back to reality, though, the majority of depositions I’ve been asked to give have more to do with disability/workman’s comp issues. I had a 21-year old female seek treatment from me for shoulder pain she claims began when she lifted a heavy box at her job the wrong way. I saw no consistent symptoms of major injury, but sent her for imaging studies and an ortho consult anyway (none of which identified any real problem either). But after a week off work (which I wrote a note excusing her for) she continued to complain of debilitating pain, so I prescribed percocet (which she promptly used and asked her an early refill) as well as physical therapy (which she never bothered to go to). After writing her a work note for another week out, I get a ten-page FMLA document faxed to me from her work, which I was expected to complete on my own time for no charge (I did). She was eventually released back to work by me “light duty” three and a half weeks later, and not two days beyond that, she sues because her company won’t give her workman’s comp and the subpoena arrives in the mail. A week after that the lawyer handling her long-term disability sends his own. No way in hell am I giving up a full day or more of my own practice time to testify on her behalf. My clinical notes, test results, consults and extensive FMLA documentation would be plenty if she was legitimately injured (but, dare I say, I suspect she was not).

Believe it or not, sometimes responsible parties won’t pay for the harm they caused, and sometimes there is a dispute about the injury. How dare they go to the person with the most knowledge about it to explain it to the fact finder. Don’t they realize you are above normal society?

I wonder how you’ll feel when it’s you on the wrong end of a car wreck wanting your physician to testify for you. Oh, wait, you demigods are indestructable, right?

I’ve treated plenty of “back pain” patients who want my help when they get involved in disability or workman’s comp lawsuits. I treat their medical complaint, I don’t sign on to be their advocate in a trial. I’ve also had former patients who divorce and want me to testify against the other for a child custody hearing. I have a strong suspicion that a lot of these resultant lawsuits are bull. I’ll provide the medical record documenting a diagnosis and treatment, beyond that, I have no interest in getting sucked in to their sordid legal squabbles.

Why. would. you. not. want. to. testify. for. your. own. patients. in. a. civil. lawsuit?

I’ll repeat it slowly for you… No. Civic. Duty. To. Testify. In. A. Civil. Lawsuit.