For years doctors out here, in the battlefield, have been calling for some way to control the idiosyncratic use of "experts" by medical malpractice attorneys. Often overlooked, the testimony of these experts is frequently a lynchpin of the lawsuit.
Frequently the experts are simply "hired guns," well-known to the litigators as physicians who will give cooperative responses. These physicians many times do not have subspecialty training in the areas in which thety testify, but the significance of this fact is usually lost on the "peers" selected in jury trial of malpractice cases.
Expert witnesses are also sometimes older docs who are past their prime but need a source of income and a way to maintain their self esteem. If the law will not deal with the problem of expert witnesses in malpractice tort cases, physicians may have to step into the fray for themselves. Maybe this is a start.
