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Disastrous experts - and how to avoid them.

Article Excerpt
A few weeks ago I went to the courthouse to watch a plaintiff's expert testify in a medical malpractice case. The defense attorney had told me the expert was going to have some serious credibility problems, but it was even worse than I imagined.

The expert, a surgeon by training, had not had hospital privileges for more than 25 years. He had applied several times and either withdrew his application before the hospital acted, according to his testimony at trial, or he was denied privileges, according to testimony he gave in other cases--testimony brought to his attention by the transcript-wielding defense lawyer.

The witness claimed to have an active office practice where he did outpatient surgery, but eventually he conceded that the office was, in fact, a conference room. He downplayed this by using medical-sounding terms to describe what he did. For example, he said he would ask patients to get on the conference table by means of "alternative technology." On further questioning, he admitted this "technology" was nothing more than a stepladder.

The witness told the jury that he was recently granted privileges at an Army base where he treated wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq. He stated at least three times that these soldiers, who had given so much to protect our freedoms, were...

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