The credibility of expert witnesses can make or break the defense of your medical malpractice case. If your attorneys do not understand how to manage expert testimony effectively, it can lead to confusion, weaken your defense, making it more difficult to achieve a defense verdict.
Consider how a typical medical malpractice trial unfolds.
There the jury sits — unfamiliar with the medicine at issue, and unfamiliar with the legal procedures around them. And then come opening statements. Each attorney stands up and starts touting a different expert as the “preeminent expert” in the relevant field of medicine. The only problem: these “preeminent experts” all reach different conclusions. And the jury doesn’t know who to believe.
As the trial proceeds, the credentials of the experts begin to blur. Their scientific explanations turn to noise in the wash of cross examination, equivocation, and sixteen-syllable medical terms. The one thing that every juror understands is that these experts are being paid!
At the end of the day, juries want to know what has been accepted as conventional wisdom, they want to see it in black and white, and they want to hear it from someone who isn’t being “paid” for their opinion. That is why it is crucial for an expert’s opinion to be backed by something more than just their “I say so,” whether that is in the form of a textbook, an association’s guideline, or a medical journal.
Recently, we tried a case where our experts presented multiple treatises supporting their key opinions. After deliberations and a defense verdict, the jury told us that they liked our paid experts, but they really believed the “non-paid” experts — i.e., the authors of those treatises!
At Waranch and Brown, we make finding supportive literature a priority, not an afterthought. When a particular scientific issue is hotly disputed, we ensure that our experts are armed with literature at the earliest possible phase of litigation.
If you need assistance with a legal matter, Waranch & Brown and our experienced attorneys are here to help.