3 Tips To Choose The Right Expert Medical Witness
Malpractice cases can be challenging to overcome. It's important that you have a legal team who understands the important role expert witnesses play in any legal case involving medical issues.
The right medical expert witness can make or break a case, so it's critical that you are able to select the individual that will best represent your interests during any legal proceedings.
1. Identify the Underlying Medical Issue
One of the more common mistakes made in selecting an expert witness in medical cases is the tendency to choose a specialist according to the patient's symptoms.
For example, a patient experiencing numbness or weakness shouldn't automatically assume that a neurologist is the right choice for an expert witness. Instead, a specialist familiar with the underlying medical issue causing the numbness or weakness should be selected.
By basing witness selection off the underlying medical issue, one can provide a comprehensive overview of the patient's condition during a medical legal proceeding.
2. Check the Resume
Another mistake to avoid when lining up a medical expert witness is a failure to evaluate the individual's resume. Just because someone holds the title of "Dr." doesn't mean they attended medical school.
Medical researchers often hold a doctorate degree, but they don't have the clinical experience acquired in medical school. Be sure that an expert witness has the right credentials to testify in court; otherwise, the information provided by the expert may not hold much value.
3. Start Searching Early
Never wait until the last minute to begin looking for an expert witness in a medical legal case. The earlier an expert witness is retained, the more helpful that witness can be to the case.
An expert witness can assist in depositions to help gather pertinent information an attorney or patient wouldn't think to ask for. This enhances the quality of any medical legal case. Securing a good expert witness early will also ensure that the opposition is unable to benefit from that witness's expertise in his or her chosen field.
Early retention can also provide the expert witness with ample time to become familiar with the patient's medical history in order to help formulate a legal strategy that can be used to find fault in a court of law.
Medical legal cases are complex and laden with specialized information. Expert witnesses play a central role in helping make sense of the facts surrounding a medical legal case.
To learn more, contact a resource that offers medical legal consulting.
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