Christmas Subpoena

[Apollyon]

2 days does not a necrobump make. Moreover, your post was not inane.

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[WingedOx]

was referring to bkz.

 

[dchristismi]

Ug.

Was thinking about this thread this morning... with a slew of deputies, photographers and detectives in the department for a case that is going to land another subpoena in my box as a witness for the prosecution, assuming our evidence will catch the bastard. Did get some good DNA. Yeah, I love telling victims that. "I've got good news and ooky news... we got DNA, but... we got DNA."

Most of these cases don't get to me like this one, as we sort of get used to the awful stuff. But this one just hit home, I guess. Merry Christmas.

Well Damn. This case, from 2009, *finally* went to court last fall. As in, November 2017. It took 8 f-in years to get this bastard - 7 for me to get the first subpoena, but I figured I would one of these days. The first trial ended in a mistrial, because a law officer slipped that the guys DNA was in the federal database, thereby letting the jury know it wasn't this first guy's rodeo. So, after the mistrial, we all got to go back and do it again.

Honestly, it felt good to lock this guy up for a long time, and as much as I grumbled about it, I told my patient I'd be there for her if she needed me, and I was.

 

[southerndoc]

I know this is an odd necrobump, but I get to go into trial as a witness tomorrow. I've got a patient of mine from residency suing another physician.

I'm no longer at that institution, so I ask for records to review before I testify. The secretary sends over a 130 page fax, that requires me to stand by the machine the whole time because our fax is a broke-ass piece of crap that was replaced this morning (of course).

Out of the 130 pages, only about 4 are even slightly relevant. Only one note is from me and it's missing the first page, so I have no idea what the date of the encounter is from it. A solid 1/3rd of the pages are one of those patient education pamphlets you can print out in Cerner about back pain, which was printed about 7 times, for some reason.

Tommorow is going to be interesting.

Do NOT let them turn you into an expert witness. You are a FACT witness. You should only talk about what you saw, what you did, what you discussed (as documented), etc. If it involves your opinion of how something was handled, it's likely expert witness testimony. If they say to the jury to tender you as an expert witness, you know they're trying to get your expert testimony for free. Be straightforward and tell them the notes that they sent were irrelevant as they did not send your documentation.

Limit what you say to your note only. If it's not documented, don't go out on a limb unless you clearly remember the patient and what happened that wasn't documented.

 

[WingedOx]

Do NOT let them turn you into an expert witness. You are a FACT witness. You should only talk about what you saw, what you did, what you discussed (as documented), etc. If it involves your opinion of how something was handled, it's likely expert witness testimony. If they say to the jury to tender you as an expert witness, you know they're trying to get your expert testimony for free. Be straightforward and tell them the notes that they sent were irrelevant as they did not send your documentation.

Limit what you say to your note only. If it's not documented, don't go out on a limb unless you clearly remember the patient and what happened that wasn't documented.

Yeah, I get the impression that the plaintiff thinks I'm going to be more useful than I actually will be. The defense originally subpoenaed me last summer for a deposition, but they never followed up with me after I made contact with them. This was a psychotherapy case, and we were trained at my program to document the bare minimum about therapy encounters if you're not also handing meds. My one note is basically 2 sentences long.

 

[WingedOx]

God, that was a pain. I really have no idea what the plaintiff's attorney thought they were going to get from me, unless the patient was insistent that I'd be able to help her case. I had almost nothing in a year and a half of documentation of q2weeks psychotherapy notes referencing the incident that that lawsuit was about and even then what I referenced was so indirect that I legitimately was unable to remember if it was relevant to the case. The defense had every note I'd written in the entire year and a half with the patient and had me read thru every one of them one by one (to the point that the judge got annoyed and told him to move it along). The fact that I got sent 130 pages of crap from his office was even more inexcusable... I had no way to review and remember stuff from appointments that were three years ago until I saw them for the first time in 3 years there up on the stand.

I'm VA so it's not like I'm losing a day of $$ for this, plus I got to go to a pizza place near the courthouse that's only open M-F during the workday that I never get to go to and I needed the nap I took this afternoon after staying up late playing hockey and watching the Olympics all week.