By James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq.
Introduction – Medical Expert Witness and Needing an Active Clinical Practice
Expert witnessing can be a great side gig for physicians and other medical professionals. The work is interesting and involves teaching and educating lawyers, judges, and juries. The vast majority of the work consists of record review, research, talking on the phone or Zoom, and writing and can be done from home. Giving trial testimony in a case is the exception, not the rule, as the vast majority of cases either settle or are dismissed prior to trial. The work pays well, with physician expert witnesses earning $500-$1000 per hour or more for their time.
We are often asked if a medical expert witness needs to maintain an active clinical practice.
Medical Expert Witness Needs Active Clinical Practice?
Whether a medical expert witness needs an active clinical practice really depends on the circumstances.
For medical malpractice cases, if the medical expert witness is planning on opining on standard of care, an active clinical practice may be a legal or practical requirement. Many states have statutes that require that a medical expert witness have an active clinical practice. For a state-by-state breakdown on these requirements, please click here.
Even if there is not a legal requirement for a medical expert witness to have an active clinical practice – there is a practical one. A good lawyer is going to be very hesitant to call on a medical professional who no longer sees patients to offer an opinion as to the standard of care provided by a medical professional who is currently treating patients.
Medical Expert Witness Work/Cases Where an Active Clinical Practice is Not Required
There are many types of cases or opinions where an active clinical practice is neither a legal nor a practical requirement for medical expert witnesses. These include:
Medical Malpractice Causation: Did the alleged breach of the defendant medical practitioner actually cause harm? Without harm caused by a breach, a claim of medical malpractice must fail.
Personal Injury Cases: What is wrong with the plaintiff? What caused these problems? How serious is it? What will it take to make them better? How long will it take to make them better?
Disability Disputes: Can this person work?
Patent Cases: Was this patent (say for a medical device) valid as something novel or would it have been obvious to a medical practitioner with ordinary skill in the art?
Healthcare Fraud: Was the medical treatment medically necessary? Was the coding accurate?
Life Care Planning: What’s it going to take to take care of this person for the rest of their life? How much is this all going to cost?
Life Expectancy: How long would this person have lived had they not been in the accident? How long can they be expected to live now?
Competency: Was the person in question competent to execute their will?
Hospital Liability: Did the hospital (as opposed to the treating providers) do anything wrong, for example by not providing needed equipment or not credentialling a provider correctly?
Independent Medical Examinations: These are personal injury expert witness opinions where the expert also sees and examines the person in question. They are typically performed on behalf of the defense.
Conclusion: Medical Expert Witness and Active Clinical Practice
Although lawyers typically prefer a medical expert witness with an active clinical practice, we have trained and mentored countless physicians who have built large medical-legal practices despite having limited or no clinical practice. The best way to succeed is to concentrate on areas as exemplified above that typically don’t require an active medical practice.
It is also important to learn how to perform as an expert witness at an exceptional level. Expert witnessing is really easy to do at a mediocre level. Performing at a high level as an expert witness takes training and a dedication to improving one’s skills and work product. For a complete list of the training offered by SEAK, please click here.
About the Author
James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq., has been training medical expert witnesses for over 25 years. He has extensive experience teaching and mentoring physicians and other medical expert witnesses who have no or a limited clinical practice. He is a Principal of SEAK, Inc – The Expert Witness Training Company. He is the co-founder of SEAK’s National Directory of Expert Witnesses, the #1 rated expert witness directory. Jim can be reached at 978-276-1234 or jim@seak.com. For more information on SEAK, Inc. – The Expert Witness Training Company, visit www.testifyingtraining.com