Having your treating doctor testify at your trial is the ideal scenario. Why?
Who better than the doctor who examined you and treated you to come into court and explain to the jury what he did and why. Your doctor is familiar with all that happened to you and what your prognosis is.
The problem is that most treating doctors do not want to come in to court and testify in a negligence case, medical malpractice case or wrongful death case. Why not?
There are multiple reasons. However, the two main reasons are as follows:
1. It simply takes up too much time from the doctor scheduled to spend an entire day in court on your matter.
2. In cases involving medical malpractice, the doctor does not want to be seen pointing fingers at another colleague. Even if he or she is not being called as an expert to criticize the care rendered by other doctors, the doctor typically will not want to get involved.
What happens if your treating doctor does not want to come into court and testify?
There are two solutions to this problem:
1. We can subpoena the doctor into court. This will compel him to come in at a particular date and time. This is the least pleasant way to get him to come in and discuss with the jury what happened to you and what he did for you.
The main problem is that a doctor who is subpoenaed is going to be less than enthusiastic to come into court and talk to the jury.
2. The other alternative is to hire medical experts to review all of your records. This allows the expert to comment and discuss with the jury what was done for you, as well as discuss what the future holds for you. In addition, these experts will be able to critique the treatment you had in the past since they will have had the benefit of reviewing all of your medical records.
To learn why medical experts refuse to bring medical records to court when they testify, I invite you to watch the quick video below...
