Expert Witness Statute Stands Test
Physicians who offer expert witness in medical liability cases will have to pass a tougher test to qualify to give testimony, thanks to ruling in the commonwealth's Superior Court in April 2005.
In a case (Weiner v. Fisher) challenging how the limits are to be applied on who may testify as an expert in a medical malpractice case, the court upheld the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s interpretation of the law. Current state law (Act 13) requires that, in order to testify, an expert must be in active practice within five years.
The Society, in an amicus (friend of the court) brief, urged that the expert must be in active practice within five years of the witness’s testimony regarding the incident. The patient’s lawyer argued that the statute meant five years from the time of the incident. Since malpractice cases can take six years and more to reach the courts, the expert under this interpretation could have been out of practice for 11 years.
The Society is actively seeking to identify cases such as Weiner v. Fisher where Act 13 tort reforms are challenged by the plaintiff’s bar as unconstitutional or where the interpretation sought by the plaintiff's bar would enervate the reforms.
Last Updated: 9/10/2007