Q. Why should I come to your consulting firm with my medical malpractice cases?
A. If you have tried the "services" you are in for a surprise. We make every effort to assure you that the cases you file are winnable and that you don't ignore a case which has merit. You won't find such honesty elsewhere. More likely you will be told that your case will go directly to an expert and you will be charged from $1,400 to $2,000 for the effort. Often that is a waste of money we help you avoid. Sometimes the "service" will give you a cheery review just to get you to pay for an expert. We aren't always right but having handled 15,000 or more cases for attorneys and practicing in the medical malpractice arena for many years, we aren't often wrong about a case. You can count on our honest assessment of your case.
Q. How are my cases screened?
A. When the records of your case arrive in our office we first review the record,
tabbing important pages and noting any missing information. The case is then reviewed by a physician or physicians appropriate to the issues. Dr. Laurence R. Dry, M.D., J.D., then reviews the case and any reports from other physicians, and writes all reports. This assures consistency.
Q. What should I send to you for review?
A. Please send complete records and any x-rays or other studies which bear on the case. Our fee is not governed by the length of the record. You want the right answers about your case and we want to provide only right answers. Likely as not if someone in your office decides that we need only part of the medical record they will delete the very portion that is critical to our review.
Q. Why do you think you can find better medical experts than I can find by myself?
A. If you get lucky you can do as well as we do. Our advantage is that we have been finding experts for nearly 20 years. We have contacts with most of the university medical centers in this country. We are fairly widely known for honesty and for prompt payment. Perhaps most importantly, when Dr. Dry calls, a doctor is likely to talk to Dr. Dry or return the call since Dr. Dry is an M.D. Often doctors won't answer a call from an attorney.
Q. My case has already been reviewed by a doctor and found to have merit. Why should I have you review it before finding me additional experts?
A. Our review is essential if we are to know the case and present it to prospective medical experts. In addition, our fee is both a review fee and a retainer that pays us for our involvement. However, if you have written reports from experts we will discount our retainer/review fee by $100 if you send the report(s) with the records.
Q. Where do the experts that you will find for my case come from?
A. We pick experts, they don't pick us! We look for doctors who are qualified to serve on your case based upon the needs of the case. Often it is as simple as isolating a group of physicians with certain credentials. Sometimes it involves going to the medical literature to find those who have published on a topic. We consider any board-certified physician with good credentials a potential expert. Usually any expert we assign to your case will be associated with a major university medical center. All experts are trained in the United States and are board certified. We make sure that your expert does not have an accent foreign to your location.
Q. I don't want an expert who practices in a distant state.
A. We begin our search by examining physicians who live in a state contiguous to yours. Rarely will an expert come from beyond your own geographic area and those rare instances will be because your case required experts in very sparsely populated specialties where our choices are severely limited.
Q. Will you send my case directly to an expert if I ask you to?
A. We prefer to have the case reviewed first. That way we know the case and can find better experts. If the statute of limitations is upon you and you have reason to believe that your case has merit we will arrange for your case to go directly to an expert. But this is the exception and experience tells us that this is not the best method.
Q. What happens if you tell me that my case has merit but the expert you find for my case disagrees?
A. We are dealing with doctors' opinions, a very fickle commodity! If the expert returns a negative review after we have given you a meritorious review, we will send it to another expert at a reduced fee. We will locate the second expert at no cost to you but you will be responsible for his portion of the billing plus expenses.
Q. I understand that the "services" make all arrangements for the expert, including deposition and trial testimony and charge me for that service. How does MLIS do it?
A. Once we have found you an expert, he has returned a meritorious review, and you have made contact with the expert, our involvement in your case ceases unless you encounter problems with the expert or require additional experts. We believe that in this manner the expert becomes your expert, not ours. You are free to negotiate fees with the expert. When the expert is deposed or testifies, you pay him directly. As a result, further effort by the expert is much less expensive to you and he is likely more motivated to perform well.
Q. Are the experts you find under contract to MLIS?
A. We neither choose experts from a list of volunteers nor do we have experts under contract to us. We believe that when experts are under contract to a "service," the relationship to the service often becomes the focus of the expert's testimony and can damage a case. We do ask our clients not to send other cases to an expert we have found without our consultation. Often experts find such contact inappropriate. Sometimes cases have been sent to them that are not within their specialty. Often they are helping us because of mutual friendships or collegiality.
Q. I got an expert through one of the "services" only to find out that he had a bad reputation, had a drug problem, had had his license suspended, had lost his credentials to practice at a hospital, wasn't board certified, ……..
A. If that should ever happen with an expert that we have located for you we would be horrified! And we would find you another expert without charge. But the truth is that it won't happen with us. We make every effort to investigate the expert and assure ourselves that he is qualified to serve you. Plus nearly all of our experts have university medical center affiliations which markedly decreases the likelihood of such an incident occurring.
Q. I got an expert from a "service" and found that he (she) had testified hundreds of times for the plaintiff. The expert was easily impeached at deposition and at trial.
A. That won't happen with us! We check to see how many times an expert has reviewed cases and/or testified. We like a little experience at testifying, preferably for both the defense and plaintiff, but we disqualify any expert who has had such wide exposure that he is easy to impeach. We also scan the many verdicts and settlement reporters and if an expert's name comes up we become suspicious that he has had too much exposure. The exceptions to this rule are rare but there are occasional experts in very narrow fields who are scrupulously honest and have testified a goodly number of times without besmirching their reputations. If we intend to involve an expert who would not ordinarily meet our strict criteria you would be asked for your permission to do so prior to contact with the expert.
Q.
I refer all of my medical malpractice cases to another law firm. Why would I
want to utilize the services of MLIS?
A.There are several answers to this question.
First, when you refer a case to another attorney, knowing if the case has
merit aids your referral or association negotiations. Any medical malpractice
attorney is going to make a more generous offer of association if you can
point out that your case has merit. If you already have experts your case is
even stronger.
Secondly, our retainer/review fee is a fixed fee often paid by the client.
You are in the best position to collect that fee from the client.
Finally, if your case has sufficient damages and we tell you that it is a
meritorious claim, your decision about whom to refer the case may change. If
the medical issues warrant it, it may even influence you to associate someone
with a medical background on the case. Yes, we do associate on a limited
number of cases when the damages offset the time and risks of travel.
Q. I've got a statute problem, lost my expert and trial is next month, got an expert from a service that turned out to be a drunk, convicted felon, died or ran away to the Bahamas with his next-door neighbor. Can you help?
A. Usually! Just call us and we'll do our best to accommodate. Change RUSH reviews to $700. Routine reviews are $600. Payment should be sent with the case material because the review will not be done until payment is received. Finding experts in a rush is usually possible but adds expense and may affect quality.
Bottom line: We pick experts for your case as we would for ours! Ask any defense attorney on the other side of one of our cases if we have good experts on our cases!!!
Q. Will you send my case directly to an expert if we ask you to?
A. The short answer is no. We need to be able to talk intelligently with a prospective doctor or nurse expert about your case. This means that we have to review it. If you want a different kind of arrangement please look to the expert brokerage firms advertised in the ATLA journal and elsewhere. But beware!
Q. Why don't you provide testimonial letters such as some of the "services" do?
A. Our firm has been providing honesty and good work in the medical malpractice arena for nearly 20 years. Ask any professional liability insurance company and, despite the fact that our reports have often led to settlements and our efforts at helping lawyers develop their cases have cost them dearly, they will grudgingly tell you of our honesty. They will probably also tell you that we find unimpeachable experts. Check with firms in your state that specialize in medical malpractice.
If, after asking around, you still demand references, we will provide them only if we first have a firm's permission to divulge their name to you. We respect the confidentiality of the firms who allow us to work with them. Many of those firms have utilized our help for a long time. If they wish to divulge their working relationship with us we have no objection. On the other hand, the cases we work on are their cases, not ours. We prefer to remain in the background - where a genuine consulting firm such as ours belongs.
If you are gullible enough to fall for testimonials you need to try some of the firms that utilize them as a marketing tool. Often those letters are solicited and/or written by the advertiser!
Q. The state in which I practice requires an affidavit of probable cause before we can file a claim for medical malpractice. Can you help us?
A. We prefer to find experts for your case who will provide you with affidavits of probable cause. We will provide such affidavits when the statute of limitations is too close to find experts prior to filing, but only if we deem your case to be meritorious.
Q. Suppose I want experts even though your report is not as favorable as I hoped. Will you still find experts for the case?
A. Our job is to help you. We do not see our role as selecting your cases for you. If you want experts, we will send your case out to the same experts we would commission if we found your case to be a strong one. However, we cannot guarantee that we can find you an expert if we deem your case to be a close one.
We will present your case in its most favorable light. We realize that often you are attempting to satisfy a client who may not be dissuaded by a weak or negative review. On other occasions catastrophic damages mandate that last effort. We attempt to define the probabilities of success in retaining suitable experts and are seldom in error. In cases where the merit of the case is weak or uncertain, we often counsel you to obtain funding from your client for the expert search effort.
Q. Does your firm work only for firms representing the plaintiff?
A. We are occasionally asked to help with a defense case or even a criminal case, but the majority of our work is for plaintiff's firms. Our reviews are honest and could be used by either the defense or the plaintiff.
Currently, defense firms tend to utilize a combination of local doctors and well-known testifiers that are easily impeached. When they discover that we can find them better experts than are available to most defense firms, this may change.
Q. I don't like paying you a review fee and then paying for experts. Isn't that more expensive than sending a case directly to an expert?
A. NO! Generally, experts will lower their fees for us. So, if you find your own expert, his hourly rate is liable to be higher than the one we negotiate for you. If a service finds an expert for you, the service will take a large cut. We collect no fee from you once the expert has been identified to you. You will save thousands of dollars!
Furthermore, we avoid well-known testifiers and doctors who charge exorbitant fees. This way, you will get better experts and their fees will be reasonable.
Q. Several "legal nurses" have contacted me. Their rates are lower than your firms. I'm tempted!
A. If the nursing standard of care is at issue, or if you need a time line or a good organization of the records, they are often very helpful. But, if you need to know whether or not to take a case, what the medical standard of care is, or if you need experts, you are likely to be disappointed if you go to a legal nurse.
Nurses are generally unfamiliar with the standard of care for doctors, because they have never "lived it." Obstetrical nurses and nurse anesthetists are two exceptions. They are familiar with the medical standard of care for physicians, because they do the same types of things as doctors.
If your case involves doctors we suggest that you first determine if it has merit, if it is winnable, and if it is likely to garner an award that will benefit your client and pay your fee and expenses.
Once you determined that you have a good case and experts have been found, a legal nurse consultant may be very useful. Legal nurses are usually very good at nitpicking a chart and producing a detailed time-line. They will likely point out minor violations, but those violations may not have a causative relationship to the outcome. They may also provide useful references. Occasionally, we use the services of legal nurses for these purposes and can point you to a good one in your geographical area.
Q. What happens if I send a case to you and you know one or more of the healthcare providers involved?
A. If we have even a passing knowledge of any physician or other healthcare provider in a case you send, we will tell you so. If we have any kind of a relationship with that person which causes us to have so much as the appearance of a conflict, we will return the case record and your money as quickly as possible with our apologies.
Q. I once used a "service" and found that the initial report overstated my case. I then spent thousands of dollars before finding out that my case was not winnable. Will that happen if I send a case to MLIS?
A. Although we thoroughly review your case, we can make the very rare honest mistake. Furthermore, we are dealing with the opinion of doctors. Sometimes a doctor will not delve deeply enough into the case to see the liability. Occasionally, we get a report that is clearly dishonest. You have the advantage of our expertise and experience as we are able to identify and rectify such situations either by confronting the physician and pointing out his errors or by finding another, more suitable expert. If we call a case meritorious, we stand behind our report by subtracting our fee for further efforts if the first potentially testifying expert disagrees with our opinion. (Of course, you will still have to pay the additional expert's fee.) We never overstate the merits of a case. To our knowledge we have never been accused of doing so.
Medico-Legal Information Services
140 East Division Road, Suite Suite C-3
Oak Ridge, TN 37830-6900
Phone: (865) 482-6600 or 1-800-638-6655
Fax: (865) 481-0264
