The Judge is furious.

He's upset.

The jury has just spent a few hours listening to this witness' testimony.

They heard his questioning by the attorney for the injured victim.

They heard his cross examination by the defense attorney.

During cross examination it was obvious that this witness had lied.

The defense attorney caught him in a lie.

A big one.

Not some little white lie.

Not someting minor.

A big whopper.

Huge.

On direct examination this witness told the jury he was well qualified.

Qualified to give opinions about the care and treatment rendered by the doctor you sued.

This was your medical expert.

He was coming to testify on your behalf.

He was testifying that your doctor violated the basic standards of medical care.

He was testifying that the wrongdoing caused you injury.

He was also testifying that your injuries are permanent.

During the first ten minutes of cross examination, the defense attorney tore apart his qualifications.

Turns out, he didn't exactly graduate from where he said he did.

Turns out that he didn't complete his residency training program at the hospital listed on his curriculum vitae.

Your expert said that was a typo.

Not really.

He graduated from a different hospital.

A lesser and not well known hospital.

When your expert said he was board certified, he was.

Just not in the traditional board certification program that most doctors belong to.

This was some alternative board that most people had never heard of.

It sounded like a mail order certification by the time the defense attorney had finished with him.

After exploring your expert's qualifications, the defense lawyer asked to have this witness' testimony thrown out.

The defense attorney argued that he wasn't qualifed to testify.

The Judge said this was a question for the jury to evaluate.

The jury gets to decide how much weight to afford this witness compared to any other witness.

As cross examination proceeded, it became obvious that this 'expert' was no expert.

His tetsimony was inconsistent.

He was confronted with testimony from other trials he participated in that were markedly different from what he was saying here.

Your attorney looked like he wanted to crawl under the table.

This was embarassing.

For him.

For you.

For the expert.

When the defense lawyer finally finished his withering cross examination, he turned to the judge.

"Your honor, I have no more questions for this witness and at this time I renew my request to dismiss ALL of his testimony as being unqualified to testify as an expert in this case," he argued.

The Judge looked briefly at your attorney and as he started to rise up out of his chair and open his mouth said "Counsellor, sit down. I've heard enough."

"After hearing this witness' testimony, his contradictions, his qualifications, it is the opinion of this Court that this witness is NOT qualified to testify as an expert. Accordingly, I direct the jury to disregard ALL of his testimony. None of the questions and none of his answers will play any part in evaluating this case," the judge said with finality.

The Judge then said to your attorney "Counsellor, call your next witness."

"Uh, Judge, he was my last witness. I don't have any other witnesses," your attorney answered.

The defense attorney jumped up and said "Your honor, since plaintiff's counsel does not have a medical expert to support his claim, I move to dismiss his case."

The Judge looked over at your attorney to see if he could pull a rabit out of a hat and magically declare that he had another medical expert ready to testify.

"Judge, I'd like to request a few days to obtain a new medical expert," he said desperately.

"No, that's not going to happen. If you don't have any more witnesses and you have no other medical expert I grant the defense attorney's request and hereby dismiss this lawsuit! Case closed."

To learn more about objections made during trial, I invite you to watch the quick video below...

 

Gerry Oginski
Connect with me
NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Trial Lawyer