The Challenge Of Presenting Treating Physicians
By E. Drew Britcher and Armand Leonie, New Jersey Law Journal
May 15, 2017
Lawyers from both sides of the litigation aisle have long battled over the presentation of opinions by treating physicians, not only with each other but with the physicians themselves and with the strategic and practical considerations of producing them. This should not be a surprise to anyone who has tried more than a few cases, but jurors tend to be more suspicious of the opinions of doctors who have been retained for litigation purposes. This was effectively confirmed by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Stigliano v. Connaught Labs, 140 N.J. 305 (1995), when the court stated:
Without impugning the expert witnesses who may testify for either plaintiffs or defendants, the treating doctors may be the only medical witnesses who have not been retained in anticipation of trial. A jury could find the treating doctors’ testimony to be more impartial and credible than that of retained experts.
However, despite that credibility, the AMA’s position in section 9.07 of their Principles of Medical Ethics that physicians must reasonably cooperate with their patient’s litigation support, and the decision in Spaulding v. Hussain, 229 N.J. Super. 430, 440 (App. Div. 1988), noting that “unless otherwise agreed, a physician treating an accident victim ‘impliedly agrees to appear and testify on behalf of his patient on issues such as the nature, extent and causality of his patient’s injuries,” many doctors are less than cooperative in a patient’s litigation.
Following the Stigliano decision, where neither of the involved doctors had prepared any reports of their opinions, it became accepted that doctors could testify to any opinion on causation that they had arrived at, during the course of their medical treatment. Subsequently, the Rules of Court were amended to reflect a requirement that the identity of experts and treating physicians, who would testify at trial, and their reports, be produced in discovery. While this represented no change as to experts or treating physicians offering certain opinions arrived at for the purpose of the litigation, such as an opinion on permanency, to many, this is a departure from what the court said in Stigliano.
Enter the court’s decision in the matter of Delvecchio v. Township of Bridgewater, 224 N.J. 559 (2016), a LAD case where the testimony of a treating physician regarding a plaintiff’s disability was sought to be introduced. The court, citing to past precedent, cited with the Stigliano matter, stated:
The testimony of a treating physician is subject to an important limitation. Unless the treating physician is retained and designated as an expert witness, his or her testimony is limited to the diagnosis and treatment of the individual patient. Given that distinction, if a particular claim requires testimony beyond the plaintiff’s own diagnosis and treatment, the plaintiff may require the testimony of an expert, conforming to NJRE 702 and 703.
Delvecchio, 224 N.J. at 579.
This requirement places the attorney that is seeking that doctor’s testimony at conflict with the doctor, who takes the position that they did not bargain for being involved and inconvenienced by the plaintiff’s litigation or who demands an outrageous fee for meeting their ethical obligations to their patient. Plaintiff’s counsel sought to have the court conclude that the report required by the combination of Rules 4:17-4(a), (e) and 4:10-2(d)(1) is only an obligation that exists if one is prepared—a contention the court specifically rejected. “Under the court rules, a party seeking to present physician testimony at trial must disclose the substance of the witness’s anticipated testimony, and the basis for that testimony, if requested to do that in discovery.”
So, what is a lawyer supposed to do when a doctor refuses to prepare a report? On the plaintiff’s side, one alternative is to have all the plaintiff’s medical records reviewed by a separate physician and have that doctor examine the patient and testify to the whole of the opinions needed about care, treatment, causation, disability and permanency. This would lose the innate credibility that a truly coincidental treating physician’s would potentially hold. So, the alternative is that an attorney should contact the physician and his/her staff and arrange to speak to the physician at a time convenient to the doctor and determine what opinions are not reflected by the doctor’s records and prepare a summary of the treating physician’s anticipated testimony. Should the doctor remain recalcitrant to writing a report or agreeing to an interview, one can always serve the doctor with a subpoena for a deposition. While this may not enamor one to the doctor, it will often get their attention sufficiently to get them to agree to one or the other. Not only is this something that practitioners have done in such situations before Delvecchio, the use of a summary of opinions is an authorized approach in our Rules regarding criminal procedures, as well as being what the court suggested that the Civil Practice Committee consider as an amendment to the rules at issue.
Let this not suggest that this is only the plaintiff’s counsel’s headache. The decision would seem to place a similar onus on defense counsel who might want to elicit testimony from treating physicians that is damaging to the plaintiff, akin to what the defense obtained in Stigliano. So how do they comply? The answer lies in the use of the interview process under Stempler v. Speidell, 100 N.J. 368 (1985). The defense attorney should send the plaintiff’s counsel an authorization to be signed by their client permitting an interview of the treating physician, arrange for the same, and then likewise prepare and serve a summary of the physician’s anticipated testimony. The failure to do so would seem to place defendants in a similar position of possibly being barred from calling the treater.
This approach by each side should not only satisfy the adversary and the court, it should let the practitioner sleep more soundly at night.
Britcher and Leone and are founding partners of Britcher, Leone & Sergio, LLC (www.medmalnj.com) based in Glen Rock.