A minority view from an anonymous physician:
There actually should be a law protecting expert witnesses from this type of abuse. Also, the theory that expert testimony constitutes medical practice is completely preposterous. The AMA and other physician groups should not be allowed to get away with it. I’ve tried speaking up about this at some medical meetings, but I now have given up. Most doctors are completely convinced that anything that one can do to make life harder for plaintiffs is to their benefit. I think that patients and patient advocates need to speak up and contact their representatives in Congress and the state legislatures or the AMA is going to get it’s way.
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- Expert witness with a conscience
- A physician expert witness is criminally charged for perjury
- Merck sends in the B-team for a physician expert witness
- An "expert" witness fakes his experience
- An expert witness goes down in flames
- Expert witnesses in Florida
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That physician better hope he remains anonymous. You don’t cross the white line without getting punished.
If you act as an expert witness and give an opinion against a colleague that deviates from the accepted standard of care you deserve to get eaten by your professional body – if however your testimony is based on evidence and best practice then you have not crossed the white line and become a plaintif whore.
The funny thing is that we all know the guys that have that particular reputation and there is no question that if a colleague testifies and this results in a negative consequence – he had better be right !……….or else!
We also know from reading the comments of physicians here that it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong – testifying for a plaintiff is all many of you need to call them a whore. Testify for a defendant and be wrong (yes, the defense pays its experts, too), and you’re just doing the right thing and protecting the profession. You won’t be called a whore.
The reason this is a “minority view” is because it’s a load of codswollop. The number of experts actually pursued by specialty boards or licensing agencies is vanishingly small, and the number of physicians willing to testify in support of plaintiffs’ claims increases every year. I’ve deposed Gary Lustgarten repeatedly, and in my opinion, he deserved everything that happened to him (very little, in the end) and more and better besides.
Anon 8h00 – did they teach basic literacy skills at your law school?
Can you read?
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