Assessing Healthcare Equity

The Medical Expert Witness Process:

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How Lawyers and Physicians Work Together

The collaborative relationship between lawyers and physicians allows both these professionals to work together on personal injury cases to help clients and patients. Physicians and other medical professionals step in as medical expert witnesses for attorneys and are valuable resources in their legal cases.

The Lawyer’s Role

Many personal injury cases use expert witnesses to explain complex scientific and medical concepts to the jury. These expert witnesses have a wealth of knowledge on these subject matters due to their years of education and experience. Those who want to be a medical expert witness must meet the requirements laid out in Georgia Code 24-7-702 in order to legally qualify. According to the statute, medical expert witnesses need to have an active practice of such area of specialty for at least three of the last five years, with sufficient frequency to establish an appropriate level of knowledge, as determined by the judge, in teaching others how to perform the procedure, diagnose the condition, or render the treatment which is alleged to have been performed or rendered negligently by the defendant including personal injury situations. Georgia Code 24-9-67.1 also focuses on expert opinion testimony in civil actions, medical experts and pretrial hearings. This code states, “If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact in any cause of action to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise if the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods and the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.”

“In personal injury cases, a party typically uses expert witnesses to provide evidence to establish the extent of their physical injuries, pain and suffering, and cost of future medical expenses,” says Hasner Law which has locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia. “They are also used to assist the trier of fact in determining lost wages and future lost earning capacity.” When lawyers are looking for the proper medical expert witness, the American Bar Association gives recommendations on checking a medical professional’s background, references and asking questions to get the best possible expert witness. “Always review the expert vitae thoroughly. Is the expert’s schooling relevant? Do you have a doctor that is only a doctor of osteopathy and not medicine? Does the expert witness maintain current professional memberships? Ask does/ did your doctor have hospital privileges anywhere? Does the expert have to meet any specific locality rules before being offered to the court?” suggests the American Bar Association. Lawyers throughout the area work with medical experts when fighting for their clients who could have been injured in a multitude

of ways, whether from an auto accident, product defect or slip and fall, medical expert witnesses may be retained by a lawyer to provide the knowledge required to help a client have a successful case. Building a solid path from start to finish including securing the investigation of the accident to hiring an attorney that can bring an expert medical witness into the accident case is a process that an attorney can assist with. Cruser Mitchell in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, works to obtain excellent results for their clients. “Upon retention, we are 100 percent resolution-focused, and that resolution will be determined by our client after we provide all options–just like any other business decision. We help each client to determine what a win is, and then design a strategy to achieve this win,” stated Cruser Mitchell. The Law Office of Brad S. McLelland, PC in Brunswick, Georgia works with clients to provide personalized attention and topnotch representation. “A commitment to individual relationships and personalized attention is very important to me. These are not just words, this is my promise,” stated Brad S. McLelland. “I often consult with medical specialists, university professors, accident reconstructionist, toxicologists, nurses, life care experts, you name it, to build your case.”

“Lawyers throughout the area work with medical experts when fighting for their clients who could have been injured in a multitude of ways.”

The Medical Professional’s Role

Many physicians are now lending their expertise to lawyers when it comes to auto and personal injury cases. When Universal Neurological Care founder Syed Asad, MD started focusing on brain injury at his practice, that led him to working on personal injury cases with that component. “I got my brain injury certification in 2018 and then we started seeing a lot of injury cases coming in, and these were particularly cases where they also had brain injury as part of their issue,” said Asad, who has close to 20 years of experience as an expert in neurological medicine and is board certified in brain injury medicine by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. “Then we learned that a lot of law firms around town had started recognizing our work in brain injury and had started recommending us to their clients.” Asad has worked with many major law firms, including plaintiff attorneys as well as defense attorneys. “If there’s a medico-legal aspect to it and they’re interested in having us evaluate their clients, we’re happy to do that,” he said. Asad has been called to trial a multitude of times as an expert witness, but in many instances the case settles out of court. However, there were two cases where Asad ended up going to trial and testifying on the witness stand. In those cases, the plaintiff and defense attorneys questioned Asad about the case, his treatment and diagnosis. “They might have questions about causation, whether I think that the symptoms and the diagnoses I’m giving to the patient was caused by the injury, was it something preexisting or was it something preexisting that got worse with the injury,” he said. “You can see a physician like myself where we’re in network with all the insurances, but we are also able to work with car insurances and can also handle legal cases where the attorney holds the bills until the case settles.”

Emmanuel Gage, MD with Centurion Spine & Pain Centers in Southeast Georgia has been treating auto and personal injury patients for eight years since he relocated to the area from Ohio. He is double board certified in Pain Medicine and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

Many of his auto or personal injury patients typically come in right after their accident to get evaluated and treated. “We are treating them at the acute stage as opposed to the chronic stage when they’ve been out with this for 10 or 15 years,” says Gage. Auto accident patients can have all kinds of different injuries involving their back, neck or knees, so Dr. Gage determines what injuries are superficial and what is a major injury that needs to be addressed. He’ll take a history of present illness, which includes all the patient’s complaints, how they got hurt in the accident, if they were the driver, the passenger, if they were restrained, if the air bags go off, if the car was totaled and he even asks to see pictures from the accident. He also asks the patient if they had a loss of consciousness, did they go to the ER, was the ambulance involved, and if they had any kind of imaging. “Then when we see them, we’ll get them into some conservative therapy if they need it, physical therapy or