Calif-legal.com: Expert Article - Selecting A Medical Expert by Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FACEP and D. Garth Sullivan, Esq.

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Familiarity With The Suggested Expert(s)
Once the appropriate specialties have been determined, the staff physicians should be able to provide C.V.s from doctors who have been carefully pre-screened and credentialed and with whom they have discussed your case. Ideally, a physician, familiar with the facts of your case and experienced in medical-legal work, will make a blind presentation of the pertinent medical issues to potential experts, not revealing whether the case is for the plaintiff or defendant, and evaluate their suitability to act as an expert in the case. This "suitability" evaluation should include the doctor's education, training, experience (medical and legal), their communication skills, their willingness to work with counsel and their commitment to see the case through to conclusion. Only after this procedure has been completed should a C.V. be provided to the attorney.

Expert Services Contracts
The "disappearing expert" problem is one that most attorneys have encountered. Working with a company that has contracts with its physicians makes the attorney the third-party beneficiary of a contract that obligates the expert to complete the case. While not an absolute guarantee, a contract either with the expert or the consulting group is a powerful tool for compelling compliance as well as providing recourse to the attorney injured by non-compliance.

Cost Containment Protocols
Expert fees in medical negligence cases can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and yet an attorney has little recourse but to pay all expert bills once the expert has been designated. Arguing about fees will only alienate the expert and jeopardize the attorney's case. A good medical legal consulting group will review an expert's fees and, if they are excessive, handle the delicate task of asking the expert to justify them. Because the expert knows his fees are subject to review by another medical professional, he is far less likely to inflate his hours at the attorney's expense. This simple protocol can result in thousands of dollars of savings over the course of a case.

Another essential cost containment protocol requires the expert to provide time estimates for each task requested by the attorney prior to performing it. These estimates should be subject to attorney approval. This procedure prevents the attorney from being surprised by an unexpectedly expensive billing for the expert's time.

Quality Experts
Finally, the medical-legal consulting group should consist of a large network of available doctors, in all specialties and regions of the country, who are board certified, actively practicing and not performing substantial amounts of medical expert work. Nothing effects credibility more than a history of testifying for only plaintiffs or only defendants or a doctor who no longer practices medicine, but makes his living by providing trial testimony. Most importantly, these medical experts should have been screened and credentialed by other physicians who are capable of judging the relative merits of their C.V.s, assessing their communication skills, following up on medical and legal references and determining each experts' particular strengths.

Ideally, a working relationship with a medical-legal consulting group can be established which provides the attorney with access to a medical staff capable of clarifying medical issues, selecting appropriate medical specialties and, when required, providing the attorney with capable, qualified physicians who will testify on behalf of their honest, unbiased opinions.