Opinion ID: 2599136
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The superior court sufficiently advised Kaiser about the role of the expert advisory panel.

Text: Kaiser also argues that the superior court misled him as to the significance of the expert medical panel. The trial judge summarized the usual advisory role of the panel for Kaiser, told him that a plaintiff in his position might typically waive appointment of a panel if the defendant agreed to do so, and told him that appointing a panel would slow down the proceedings. Kaiser complains that the trial court did not warn him of the possibility that, if Kaiser were ultimately unable to find an independent expert to support his claims, the panel might still provide expert opinion in his favor and save him from summary judgment. The superior court did not err in failing to warn Kaiser of such a speculative eventuality. Advising litigants of every possible outcome of every decision is beyond the scope of the court's obligations to the pro se litigant. We have explained that [t]o require a judge to instruct a pro se litigant as to each step in litigating a claim would compromise the court's impartiality in deciding the case by forcing the judge to act as an advocate for one side; [11] the same concern weighs against requiring a court to advise parties of potential long-term strategic implications of waiving a malpractice advisory panel.