Should You Offer Your Services as a Paid Medical Expert?

You may be contacted by a defense or plaintiff medical malpractice attorney asking you to review a case and render an expert opinion about the care others provided to a patient whom you have not treated.

The attorney may have obtained your name from another attorney familiar with your professional reputation or your unflappability on the witness stand in an unrelated case, from literature searches establishing your expertise in a particular area, or from unknown references. You should ask the attorney how he or she came to approach you. Whatever the source initiating the contact, and despite the flattery of having your opinion solicited and the lure of an additional source of income, your decision to function as a paid medical expert should not be entered into lightly. You should consider the following questions:

1. Does your schedule and patient coverage support allow you the flexibility to appear in court when required? Is the case simple, or will you need to review voluminous medical records, meet with the attorney repeatedly, give a lengthy deposition, and spend hours in court?
   If you cannot spare the time and do not have the practice coverage to ensure follow-through on your own patients, avoid offering expert opinions beyond those that you are required to give. Once you make the commitment to be the case medical expert, you must see it through regardless of the amount of time, inconvenience, and disruption of patient care that may result.
2. How well do you verbally spar without a script, and how do you handle the stress of being challenged in front of a room of spectators?
   Carefully consider whether your leadership and persuasive communication skills in your clinical life will translate well to the courtroom. Some physicians bristle under the aggressive and persistent grilling of adversarial attorneys. You may want to observe some expert testimony and imagine how well you might tolerate a similar experience.
3. Could your testimony be used against you at a later time?
   Your status as a medical expert and your testimony in a given case are readily retrievable by current databases. If any patient ever sues you for malpractice, the testimony you give in this case might be misconstrued, taken out of context, or otherwise used against you. This possibility dictates caution whenever you are asked to testify.
4. How well will you deal with pressure to enhance your opinion, to be more critical or supportive of other providers’ care, or to venture outside your area of expertise in order to help the defendant’s or plaintiff’s case?
   Maintaining professional boundaries when providing expert testimony can be surprisingly challenging once you are caught up in the dynamics of a malpractice lawsuit. Keep in mind that the attorney you are working with has one goal: to present the best face possible on his or her case. The attorney does not care about the long-range repercussions to you professionally if you stretch your opinion beyond current and authoritative medical evidence/practice to accommodate the needs of the case. Maintaining appropriate professional boundaries will require your ongoing vigilance as an expert witness.

J4266 6/07