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It is often difficult to find medical practitioners to provide opinions to plaintiffs in medical malpractice actions. Many practitioners have a general reluctance to testify against other practitioners. Some practitioners are reluctant to become involved in the adversarial process of civil actions.
However, we are usually able to retain practitioners to provide opinions on the medical issues that are relevant in a medical malpractice action; and to testify at the trial of the action, if their objective opinions support the plaintiff's claim. Sometimes, it is necessary for us to retain a practitioner who resides outside of Alberta (particularly, in actions where the defendant is one of a small number of practitioners who practice in Alberta in a specialized area of medicine).
We often obtain preliminary opinions on the medical issues in malpractice actions based on medical records and information provided to us by the plaintiffs. Before proceeding to trial, we usually obtain more definitive opinions on those issues based on medical records and the evidence at examinations for discovery of the plaintiffs and defendants.
In most medical malpractice actions, counsel for the defendants will be able to find qualified medical practitioners to testify in rebuttal to the expert evidence of practitioners called by the plaintiffs. Many practitioners have a general willingness to testify for defendants in malpractice actions, which is stronger than any reluctance they may have to become involved in the adversarial process of civil actions. Often, the defendant will call more than one medical practitioner to testify on a medical issue.
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