Expert Witness Blog
A. David Tammelleo, JD, a nationally recognized authority on health care law, writes in A Suit For Medical Malpractice Can Stand Or Fall On The Testimony Of Expert Medical Witness For Either A Plaintiff Or A Defendant that few cases would illustrate this better than the Missouri case in which the plaintiffs’ expert medical witness completely failed to even come close to testifying as to what the applicable standard of care, which the defendant physician and the hospital that employed him were expected to meet.
Not only must both plaintiffs and defendants obtain expert medical witnesses have sterling credentials so that they are eminently qualified to testify as expert medical witnesses, but first and foremost, they must be prepared to state clearly and unequivocally what the applicable standard of care to which a physician accused of medical malpractice is alleged to have breached and that the breach of that standard was, to the appropriate degree of medical certainty, the direct and proximate cause of the alleged victim’s injuries, pain, and suffering for which the plaintiff is bringing suit. In this case, the plaintiffs’ expert witness failed to testify as to what the applicable standard of care was, ensuring the dismissal of the case.
For more, see Medical Law’s Regan Report, June, 2007 by Tammelleo, A. David