What Are Medical Witnesses?
The difference between winning a large settlement and losing out on all of your compensation often comes from an expert medical witness. A medical witness is a person who provides a medical opinion for litigation. Usually a law firm hires a company or doctor who routinely provides expert opinions about medical cases. This ethicality of this could be questioned since a malpractice attorney could simply hire whoever he or she feels will give their client the best chance of winning, not necessarily someone who will provide a fair and honest opinion.
When a legal firm hires a medical witness, they cannot simply hire any doctor though. The expert witness needs to be a licensed doctor of the state, and have thorough knowledge of the type of medical procedure at hand. Also, if a law firm pays a medical expert on a contingency fee, which means the doctor will only get paid if the law firm wins, it is a misdemeanor. Despite the initial fear that these medical opinions would hurt medical professionals, it looks like there is enough regulation in place to keep a medical expert honest.
