When you have filed a personal injury case, the defense will usually hire a doctor to conduct an “independent” medical examination of your injuries. This examination is done to see if your injuries are indeed what you are claiming them to be. However, there is nothing independent about this medical examination by the defense.
When you have filed a personal injury case, the defense will usually hire a doctor to conduct an “independent” medical examination of your injuries. This examination is done to see if your injuries are indeed what you are claiming them to be. However, there is nothing independent about this medical examination by the defense.
The defense simply hires a doctor on retainer to go ahead and conduct this medical exam to try to disprove that you have any serious injury. This doctor is required to prepare a report of his examination, send it to the defense attorney, who then forwards this report to your lawyer.
Doctor Lies about the Time Spent on Examining the Plaintiff’s Injuries
Many times, in such reports, the doctor would have mentioned that he spent a certain amount of time examining the victim’s injuries. There are instances where doctors have mentioned that they spent over twenty minutes examining the patient, which is more than the norm or what is necessary.
Suppose in your case the doctor says he spent twenty minutes examining you when in reality he did not spend more than two minutes examining your injuries. When your lawyer asks you about this on the witness stand, you are obviously going to say two minutes. However, can you prove that this doctor is not telling the truth?
If the Doctor is Lying, can You Illustrate this to the Court
The answer is yes, you can. However, it is now your obligation to show to the judge or jury that this doctor was lying. During the cross-examination of this doctor, your lawyer will have to use different techniques and strategies to show that the doctor was being a person of integrity. Your lawyer may call you on the witness stand and have you testify to the length of time that you were subjected to the medical examination.
Additionally, when you are called for a medical examination by this “independent” doctor, you can have another doctor or someone you trust in the room as well and have them sit in the examination room while you are being examined. This person can actually time the examination and note down when it started, when it ended, and you can have this person testify as well at your trail about the length of time taken by the doctor to examine you.
Strategies and Techniques
There are also some instances, when the injured victim has managed to take covert surveillance video of the doctor’s examination. He was able to show in court that the doctor actually spent only a fraction of time examining your injuries and your abilities (what you can and cannot do), compared to what the doctor said in his report. In this instance, the judge was furious with the doctor, labeled him a liar, and referred the matter to the district attorney.
Even though covertly taking the video was not appropriate, it clearly showed the fact that the doctor had lied on the stand as well as what he wrote in his report.
Therefore, during the trial, you can show when the “independent” doctor is lying by using different strategies and techniques. It is critically important to show that this doctor was lying because the defense is using this doctor to show that your injuries are not as significant as you claim them to be. Once the credibility of this doctor is destroyed, the jury will be able to disregard his entire testimony and convey to the court that the other side is willing to do anything to cover up the truth.
