Court Opinion

ID: 9576273
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:22:29.414669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:11.643283
License: Public Domain

SHORT, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I would grant the requested writ of prohibition because the *817trial court improperly exercised its judicial power by allowing a local court rule to abridge or modify a substantive right authorized by statute. Minn.Stat. § 595.02, subd. 5 permits parties and their attorneys “to informally discuss the information or opinion [of a health care provider] with the health care provider if the provider consents.” Recognizing that such informal discussions between plaintiff’s attorneys and treating physicians have long been common practice, the legislature, in its comprehensive reform of the law affecting professional liability tort claims, sought to establish a comparable right for defense attorneys.1 The statute clearly does not anticipate court intervention; even if the treating physician refuses to grant the informal discussion, the physician’s deposition may be taken “without obtaining a prior court order.”
The statute also does not impose any time limitation on the party seeking the interview. The defendant only need “mail written notice to the other party at least 15 days before the discussion.” Had the legislature wished to impose the deadline urged by respondents, it could have done so explicitly. Absent such express language, and given the legislative intent to give defendants the same access to treating physicians as plaintiffs have, I would decline to read a time limit into the statute.
Minn.R.Civ.P. 35.04, which governs the taking of medical depositions, states that such depositions “shall not be taken except upon order of the court. * * * ” By contrast, Minn.Stat. § 595.02, subd. 5 authorizes informal discussions and, if necessary, depositions without obtaining a court order. The supreme court has specifically stated that Rule 35 neither contemplates nor prohibits a private, nonadversarial interview by defense counsel of the plaintiff’s treating physician. Wenninger v. Muesing, 307 Minn. 405, 412, 240 N.W.2d 333, 337 (1976).
Finally, Minnesota law provides that rules of practice or procedure “shall not abridge, enlarge, or modify the substantive rights of any litigant.” Minn.Stat. § 480.051 (1988). Because the statute at issue, on its face, grants defense parties and their counsel the right to informally interview health care providers, neither the rules of civil practice nor any local court rule should be interpreted so as to abridge or modify that right. Imposing a time limitation for such discussions clearly modifies the statutory right to conduct informal interviews. This is especially true when, as here, the treating physician agrees to the interview.
It appears in the present case that appellants were not particularly diligent in contacting the doctor. I do not suggest that the time frames for discovery imposed by the trial court were in any way restrictive or unreasonable. However, the time limitation for formal discovery specified in local Rule 2.01 would not be affected by allowing the informal interview to take place. Such an interview is outside the scope of the formal discovery rules, although admission of evidence procured would be subject to the court’s evidentiary rulings. Similarly, use of a physician’s deposition taken after the close of discovery would be subject to the trial court’s rulings on admissibility. Thus, at the evidentiary stage, the timeliness of obtaining the evidence may become relevant. The information gathering intent of the statute should not be frustrated, however, by forcing the information gathering into the time frame of the local discovery rules.

. Representative Blatz, who introduced the bill, explained that the provision in question "allows defense attorneys the same right that plaintiffs’ attorneys have now; and that is that they do not have to go to court in order to meet with the treating physician * * A.” Hearing on H.F. 1764 Before the House Judiciary Committee, 74th Leg. Sess. (1986).