The Role of Expert Witnesses in Malpractice Cases

Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor performs treatment that is not recognized as standard healthcare treatment (i.e. advising cancer treatment procedure from the 1950s to treat a patient in 2013). More often than not, medical malpractice cases are caused by the negligence or ignorance of a medical professional.

Most people think that the outcome of a malpractice case falls solely upon the medical malpractice attorney. However, the legal process for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit demands that the doctor (or other healthcare provider) was indeed negligent.

According to medical malpractice laws, medical negligence is present when it is determined that the doctor diagnosed or treated a patient in a way that another doctor would never have done. The only way to determine this is for a medical malpractice expert witness to testify.

A medical malpractice expert witness is often a reputable doctor from the same field as the doctor accused of medical malpractice. These witnesses are required to go through all the medical records of a patient to see if there was indeed negligence on the part of the accused doctor. After reviewing the records, the expert witness will then testify in court if there was negligence on the part of the accused doctor or not.

What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?

Doctors are often seen as authority figures. After all, they spend the better part of a decade studying for their medical degrees and training in hospitals to hone their skills. If you show them your hand, they can tell you every bone, muscle, ligament, joint and nerve that comprise it. Since they specialize in the inner workings of the human body, they are experts at treating the various ailments that afflict it.

No matter how highly patients may think of them, doctors are still human and are not infallible. In fact, there are 15,000 to 19,000 cases of medical malpractice filed each year. However, if an injection feels slightly more painful than usual, that’s not necessarily grounds for a malpractice suit. Doctors can only be charged with malpractice if they were negligent of their duties, giving substandard treatment that harms, injures or causes death to patients.

In other words, deviation from the standard quality of care must first be established before the doctor can be held legally responsible for any harm caused to a patient. In such cases, a medical malpractice expert witness can study a plaintiff’s complaint to see if there is indeed professional negligence on the part of the doctor. Often, an expert witness’s opinion is necessary before a malpractice lawsuit can be filed.