0:00

So a few final notes

0:02

or tips from a plaintiff's medical

0:05

malpractice attorney perspective.

0:08

And that is that if you wanna do this work, have an up

0:12

to date cv, it's one of the things

0:15

that we're going to ask you for.

0:17

Um, and no matter who you're working for,

0:20

they're gonna ask you for that,

0:21

and we're required to provide it to the other side.

0:24

So it's one of the things that, uh, you have to have,

0:27

and we have to in fairly short order, provide

0:30

to opposing counsel.

0:32

Um, Dave talked to you a little bit about this,

0:34

but I wanna expand on that.

0:36

And, and that is that

0:38

before going into this work,

0:39

you should have a pretty comprehensive fee schedule.

0:43

And from my perspective, that involves an hourly rate

0:47

that you charge for reviewing records

0:49

or in the case of a radiologist, if you decide to charge

0:51

for this by the study.

0:52

And that's fine. So have that ready to go.

0:57

And on that same document, um, I'm gonna tell you

1:01

that you should have the hourly rate for reviewing records,

1:06

talking with lawyers, that type of thing, talking with me.

1:09

You should have an hourly rate for deposition.

1:13

Um, and that can be,

1:17

that can be in several forms.

1:19

You can say, look, send me a $2,500 retainer,

1:22

which is gonna get you five to six hour, you know, five

1:25

or six hour, whatever the rate's gonna be

1:27

of medical records review talking with you.

1:29

And then we'll bill forward going on.

1:32

A lot of times it's just, here's my hourly rate

1:35

that I bill you for the time I actually spend.

1:37

Like, you know, I'll bill you a thousand dollars

1:39

after two hours, whatever it is, talk to your friends

1:42

and colleagues, ask how they do it,

1:45

and just be comfortable in developing this.

1:48

Here's kind of a pro tip that I will tell you,

1:51

and that is, I recommend that

1:56

you charge a higher rate for your deposition

2:01

and even a higher rate for trial.

2:02

And here's the reason why.

2:05

If you come in

2:06

and you say, oh, my hourly rate's $300 for everything,

2:11

um, well the, the opposing attorney's gonna go,

2:14

great, that's reasonable.

2:16

I'm gonna book you for a 4, 5, 6 hour deposition simply

2:20

because I can, and I can spend a whole bunch

2:22

of time talking about everything under the sun with you

2:25

and trying to, you know, chin away at your armor.

2:28

Um, or you can charge $600 an hour for a deposition.

2:32

They'll go, okay, maybe I want you for three hours.

2:35

And they'll, they, you know,

2:36

they may come at you in a deposition

2:38

and say, well, doctor, why do you

2:39

charge more for a deposition?

2:40

And here's the answers that my doctors give

2:44

and their, I feel they're entirely appropriate is, well,

2:47

it's a more intense process to do this work and to sit down

2:52

and have you, you know, grill me, you know, which you,

2:56

you know, it's part of the process, I understand.

2:58

But, um, it's, it's more intense work.

3:01

It's more focused work.

3:02

I'm preparing for it and I, you know, I want you to come

3:06

and, you know, be able

3:07

to ask me the questions in the setting

3:09

that's more stressful.

3:10

Um, and I have no problem with that

3:13

because what it's really doing behind the scenes

3:16

is it's causing the defense attorney

3:18

or the plaintiff's attorney, whoever,

3:20

or the other side to say, I need

3:23

to be a little more judicious in

3:24

how much time I really think I

3:26

need to spend with this lawyer.

3:27

And it causes us to come in

3:29

and go, alright, let me ask the really germane questions.

3:33

Instead of spending a bunch, a bunch of time just beating

3:36

around the bush and trying

3:37

to see if I can attack you from anywhere.

3:39

So, um, that's one of the things to consider is,

3:43

is they will streamline your deposition if you're

3:48

charging, you know, a higher rate for that.

3:50

And I personally feel it's justifiable,

3:52

and I haven't really found, if you're in a reasonable range,

3:56

it doesn't affect anything.

3:58

Nobody's gonna give you a hard time about it.

4:00

Um, the same for trial.

4:02

Uh, trial is an even more stressful experience, uh,

4:06

according to a lot of people.

4:08

So, you know, you can say, well, my hourly rate, you know,

4:11

at this point is a little higher.

4:13

Some people charge the same, you know, $600 an hour

4:16

for deposition, 750 an hour for deposition and trial.

4:20

What, whatever it is, just have it ready to go.

4:23

If you wanna kind of do this work

4:25

and know why you're charging the rate that you're charging,

4:29

a lot of times, uh, doctors will say, well, you know,

4:32

if I'm gonna miss an afternoon of my clinics,

4:35

this is approximately, you know,

4:37

what the practice would be making.

4:38

So this is how I, I justify that time.

4:41

A lot of different ways to do it.

4:42

Talk to your colleagues and just feel comfortable with it.

4:46

The other thing that you have to think about is

4:48

if I'm gonna be traveling outta state to do a deposition

4:51

or to testify at trial, um, that's gonna involve travel.

4:55

So how do you charge for your travel?

4:57

Do you charge, you know, an overnight rate?

5:00

Do you, you know, um, most, not all,

5:02

but most of my experts charge us for obviously their travel

5:06

expenses and then the hours that they spend preparing

5:10

to meet with me and preparing for trial.

5:13

And then they have like, well, half a day at trial

5:15

or a full day at trial.

5:16

They have, they may be, well, we're gonna charge, you know,

5:20

3000 or 3,500 for a half a day, you know,

5:25

7,000 or 7,500 for a full day.

5:29

Just be aware that these are the different issues

5:32

that you will at some point have

5:34

to address if you do this kind of work.

5:36

And it's best to start out with a pretty comprehensive,

5:39

well thought out fee schedule.

5:42

So, uh, the next one is, we, we did talk about briefly,

5:45

but provide an active communication channel.

5:48

Just let us know how you prefer to be contacted

5:51

or how you prefer to communicate,

5:53

and we'll comply with that.

5:54

Um, you know, I tell my experts, Hey,

5:56

Here's my deadlines, or I may need to do this.

6:00

And they'll be like, oh, no problem, just text me.

6:02

It doesn't matter. I'll get back with

6:03

you just as soon as I can.

6:05

And, and if you have

6:06

that expectation on both sides going in,

6:09

I think it's a lot smoother.

6:11

Um, let us know.

6:12

Let the lawyer know how you like to receive your materials.

6:15

I have experts who say, oh, send me a jump drive.

6:18

Send me a link on Dropbox. Nope, I want physical copies.

6:22

Send me everything in a physical form.

6:24

Um, so be aware of that, just let us know

6:27

and we'll get you the materials in, in the way that you like

6:30

to receive them best.

6:32

Um, so this next point is that, um,

6:38

the, the prior testimony.

6:40

So in federal court, um,

6:44

and now most states are following this rule, we are required

6:49

to provide to the court in the opposing side in particular,

6:54

um, the areas of

6:56

how many cases have you testified given testimony,

6:59

and which is either deposition

7:00

or trial during the last four years.

7:03

They wanna know that number.

7:05

And then the information that we have to provide with

7:07

that is they have to ba basically be able

7:10

to identify every single case that, that

7:13

where you say you've testified,

7:15

and that's gonna be the name of the case, the location

7:18

of the case, preferably the case number, the attorney

7:21

that you are working with,

7:22

and whether you were working

7:24

for the defense or for the plaintiff.

7:26

Or sometimes there'll be administrative hearings

7:28

and, you know, not related to malpractice,

7:31

but all of that information.

7:32

If you've given sworn testimony

7:34

as an expert witness in your field, um, over the previous,

7:38

it's typically four years that some states are different.

7:41

Sometimes it goes back as far as 10.

7:43

You have to have that comprehensive document.

7:45

And that's one of the hardest things that we do as working

7:48

with experts is they'll come in

7:50

and say, yeah, I'd like to do this,

7:51

but I don't have that list.

7:52

I've never kept track. You must keep track.

7:56

If you start out keeping track, it's a whole lot easier.

8:00

And then, you know, the older cases will move off the list.

8:03

But basically this is our ability to go back

8:06

and to look at prior opinions that you've given,

8:10

to look at the types of cases that you've done

8:13

and where you've been qualified as an expert

8:15

to give those opinions.

8:17

And it makes the whole process a lot easier.

8:19

But this does dovetail into my last point, which is

8:23

your expert testimony.

8:25

You're the testimony you give in these matters whether

8:28

deposition or trial follows you,

8:31

or even sometimes sworn statements, be aware.

8:34

Those documents are court records.

8:37

We can find them and they follow you.

8:40

So you want to be well aware

8:42

and work with attorneys who understand that.

8:44

And don't put you in a difficult position

8:46

because it is not uncommon for you

8:50

to be sitting in a deposition or at trial

8:53

and have the opposing counsel when they come in

8:55

to cross-examine you

8:57

and say, well, doctor, didn't you give testimony in,

9:00

you know, Smith versus Jones, you know, three years ago

9:03

and in, you know, Alabama

9:05

where your opinions were thus and such?

9:08

And you say, well, gee, uh, vaguely remember

9:12

that they're gonna pull out a copy

9:14

of your deposition transcript or the trial transcript

9:18

and hand you one and, and expect you to read it.

9:21

And the opinion

9:23

or the the object there will again be to try

9:26

to under undermine your testimony.

9:28

So that's why you don't ever want to, you know,

9:33

sort of do anything on the fringes.

9:34

Anything that could compromise you, understand that

9:37

that's a record that's gonna follow you as you do this work.

9:40

Or even if it's someday, you know, heaven forbid you are a,

9:44

um, a defendant in a case.

9:46

And, and that testimony could come back to you.

9:48

So just be aware of that as you move through this process.

9:52

And I highly encourage anybody who has any interest, uh,

9:56

in doing this to jump in, give it a shot.

9:58

You may find you really like it, you may find you don't.

10:00

Um, but it's worth exploring

10:03

and I wish you good luck with it.

10:04

Thank you. I.