An expert witnesses worst nightmare recently occurred in Florida when a physician had his medical license revoked for allegedly lying under oath. The physician who had testified in some 300 medical malpractice cases was charged with:

* Signing an affidavit saying he was board certified when he was not

* Claiming he went to Johns Hopkins Medical School when he did not

* Claiming to be a member of the Florida medical association and the AMA when he was not &

* Claiming to be clinically active when he had not seen a patient since 2001.

The physician did not do himself any good when testifying at his license hearing when claiming that the board was “nitpicking” and the entire matter was due to “carelessness”

Expert witnesses of all disciplines need to be diligent in making sure that their testimony is truthful and honest and not designed in any way to deceive.

Expert witnesses frequently get in trouble when responding to questions about:

* Their forensic income

* Plaintiff v Defense cases

* Percentage of income from forensic cases

* Amount of time they spend doing forensic work etc.

CONCLUSION

Some experts due to the result of being pressured at deposition/trial make up these numbers without thinking through whether or not they are in fact accurate and truthful. Experts need to be properly prepared to answer these and other vexing questions and should never lie or “make up” numbers just to get through the deposition/hearing trial.

Steven Babitsky, Esq. 548-9443 and James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq. 978-276-1234 work with experts to review expert reports and help prepare them for depositions/hearings and trials.