Anyone do medical legal work?

[Kevin Durant]

Any advice for breaking into this with the goal of eventual expert witness gigs? Where to start--chart review for law firms? TIA for any advice

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[deleted126335]

Any advice for breaking into this with the goal of eventual expert witness gigs? Where to start--chart review for law firms? TIA for any advice

Start by having your integrity and conscience excised. Next, channel your inner Montgomery Burns.

 

[chocomorsel]

Start by having your integrity and conscience excised. Next, channel your inner Montgomery Burns.

But what if you want to defend physicians? Someone’s gotta do that.

 

[LineAndBerry]

But what if you want to defend physicians? Someone’s gotta do that.

It's good if you want to defend doc's, but sadly they will drop you as an expert witness if you only do that.

 

[kidthor]

How do people get started doing such work?

 

[deleted697127]

It's good if you want to defend doc's, but sadly they will drop you as an expert witness if you only do that.

I could understand that it’s easier to compensate according to actual settlement sizes versus prevented theoretical settlements, but i find it very hard to believe that there aren’t expert witnesses that lawyers and insurance companies rely on to defend doctors and hospitals.

 

[IRattending2021]

I could understand that it’s easier to compensate according to actual settlement sizes versus prevented theoretical settlements, but i find it very hard to believe that there aren’t expert witnesses that lawyers and insurance companies rely on to defend doctors and hospitals.

there are. I think they usually go for big academic names local to the suit.

 

[chocomorsel]

I could understand that it’s easier to compensate according to actual settlement sizes versus prevented theoretical settlements, but i find it very hard to believe that there aren’t expert witnesses that lawyers and insurance companies rely on to defend doctors and hospitals.

My friend has been doing this for years he tells me. Just the defensive side.

 

[Leinie]

It's good if you want to defend doc's, but sadly they will drop you as an expert witness if you only do that.

You loose credibility as an "expert" if you only do one or the other. It's frequently a question asked during a deposition.

 

[jwk]

You loose credibility as an "expert" if you only do one or the other. It's frequently a question asked during a deposition.

Agree. Malpractice does, in fact, occur. I've done about 1/2 a dozen cases in the last 5 years and it's pretty evenly split. There should be recourse for those who are truly injured or affected through malpractice. The plaintiff cases I've been involved with were clear-cut malpractice IMO. The defense cases were not. One should be able to understand the arguments both pro and con, and render an honest opinion based on the facts. The cases I have done have not been on fine pharmaco/physiologic issues that takes a PhD to discuss.

 

[Man o War]

Agree. Malpractice does, in fact, occur. I've done about 1/2 a dozen cases in the last 5 years and it's pretty evenly split. There should be recourse for those who are truly injured or affected through malpractice. The plaintiff cases I've been involved with were clear-cut malpractice IMO. The defense cases were not. One should be able to understand the arguments both pro and con, and render an honest opinion based on the facts. The cases I have done have not been on fine pharmaco/physiologic issues that takes a PhD to discuss.

Yep.
Rex Meeker comes to mind as a flagrant case of malpractice worthy of a huge settlement

 

[DrOwnage]

Yep.
Rex Meeker comes to mind as a flagrant case of malpractice worth of a huge settlement

Which leads me to my favorite quote by Saltydog: "The first problem was trusting someone named Rex."

 

[Angus Avagadro]

If you want to do medical legal work, start by doing chart reviews for lawyers or med mal insurance companies to render an opinion ias to whether the defendant deviated from a standard of care . This is considered about 2 hrs of work so I would expect 6 or $700 for your time, or whatever the going rate might be. In-court appearances in my experience are reserved for big names from respected institutions. They get paid more because there is more on the line in court as opposed to a chart review. My wife recently had experts from MD Anderson, Brigham and Women's, and U Maryland. Working at such an institution will certainly help you get work.

 

[GassYous]

If you want to do medical legal work, start by doing chart reviews for lawyers or med mal insurance companies to render an opinion ias to whether the defendant deviated from a standard of care . This is considered about 2 hrs of work so I would expect 6 or $700 for your time, or whatever the going rate might be. In-court appearances in my experience are reserved for big names from respected institutions. They get paid more because there is more on the line in court as opposed to a chart review. My wife recently had experts from MD Anderson, Brigham and Women's, and U Maryland. Working at such an institution will certainly help you get work.

Knowing how much one of those institutions pay, I'm not surprised that they need it

 

[Greenbayslacker]

If you want to do medical legal work, start by doing chart reviews for lawyers or med mal insurance companies to render an opinion ias to whether the defendant deviated from a standard of care . This is considered about 2 hrs of work so I would expect 6 or $700 for your time, or whatever the going rate might be. In-court appearances in my experience are reserved for big names from respected institutions. They get paid more because there is more on the line in court as opposed to a chart review. My wife recently had experts from MD Anderson, Brigham and Women's, and U Maryland. Working at such an institution will certainly help you get work.

How does one get into chart reviews? I would be much more interested in this, as it seems like more like real medicine rather than the production of a court testimony

 

[Angus Avagadro]

How does one get into chart reviews? I would be much more interested in this, as it seems like more like real medicine rather than the production of a court testimony

I'd contact local malpractice lawyers and your med mal carrier expressing your interest. There is more competetion for this kind of work than you might think. The back pages of legal newsletters are filled with Docs offering their services. I did reviews for a Doc at my university who had this small business and he sent out cases to the appropriate specialist. I also looked at cases for my personal med mal insurance carrier. Seems I only got work for the defendant, but would have looked at plaintiff cases if offered.