Court Opinion

ID: 9753418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:13:31.969655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:36.369532
License: Public Domain

RODOWSKY, Judge,
concurring.
I write separately because I believe that nothing more “directly involve[s] testimony” than its substantial content. Medical opinions expressed by expert witnesses in personal Injury cases are supposed to be based on a review of the medical history and, ordinarily, an examination of the patient. Accordingly, I would not exclude time spent in those activities in cases in which the doctor actually testifies on deposition or at trial.
This construction, in my view, serves the legislative goal of having those medical malpractice claims proceed in which the certificate is issued by a physician whose opinion is based on the facts and the medicine and to cull those medical malpractice claims in which the certificate is issued by a physician whose opinion is driven by the objective of the party, or *537representative of the party, who engaged the physician as an expert in a personal injury case. I believe that the great majority of claims in which the principal issue is the extent of the injury will settle based on the medical reports where the physician’s opinion is based on the facts and the medicine. In the great mass of personal injury claims asserted in this State, physicians whose opinions are recognized as reasonable by their medical colleagues and by experienced personal injury counsel usually will not be required to testify. On the other hand, a physician whose opinions, more frequently than not, are result driven will be forced eventually to justify those opinions on questioning under oath. Thus, a higher percentage of the time of any physician of the latter type will be spent in activities that “directly involve testimony.”
Nor does this construction appear to be unworkable. When certifying to the percentage of activities that “directly involve testimony,” a physician includes in the denominator, but simply excludes from the numerator, all activity, including examinations and review of medical histories, where the doctor has not actually testified in a personal injury case. The physician is not required to speculate whether a claim will be made, or a suit will be filed, or a deposition taken, or trial had.
Nevertheless, even under the broader construction proposed above, I do not believe that the evidence would support a finding that the twenty percent standard had been met in this case.