In How Attorneys Can Best Utilize Their Medical Expert Witness: A Medical Expert’s Perspective, Dr. Vernon M. Neppe MD, PhD, FRSSAf, FAPA, writes that expert witness testimony depends on finding an appropriate match for your case. This excerpt deals with balanced opinions.
The medical expert’s perception of the strengths and weaknesses of a case must be balanced and not rejected because his / her opinion disagrees with that of the retaining attorney’s. The expert’s opinions may involve multiple different areas of the case. For example, the expert may describe significant brain damage and this may not be something the defense attorney may want to hear; on the other hand, he may describe the profound limitations of ascribing causality to the injury that is being alleged. Alternatively, his / her perception of brain damage may actually be less than that of an opposition expert so (s)he may still be so declared!
More to follow on assisting civil litigation attorneys with medical experts from Dr. Neppe, Director, Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute, Seattle, WA, www.brainvoyage.com.