Difficulty in Finding Expert Witnesses

Both Plaintiff and Defendant often have a hard time finding expert witnesses for a medical malpractice case.  In Tennessee, the Health Care Liability Act requires that health care professionals testifying as experts, in addition to other requirements, be licensed to practice in Tennessee or a bordering state. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-115.

Recently, a Defendant (which is rare) had their expert struck for failure to follow the above.  In Gilbert v. Wessels, No. E2013-00255-SC-R11-CV (Tenn. Dec. 18, 2014), plaintiff filed a health care liability action against an ophthalmologist who had performed YAG laser surgery on him. Less than a month before trial, the defendant doctor filed a motion to waive the contiguous state requirement. Defendant sought to have a doctor from Florida testify who was alleged to be one of the three doctors in the country with the most experience with this procedure. Defendant supported his motion with an affidavit saying that defense counsel had spent 35 hours attempting to identify an expert in Tennessee or a contiguous state, an affidavit from a Tennessee ophthalmologist stating that testimony should be provided by someone who had performed the procedure, and a portion of plaintiff’s expert’s deposition acknowledging that the Florida doctor was one of the most experienced in the county at the relevant procedure.

The Plaintiff opposed defendant’s motion, and the trial court declined to waive the contiguous state requirement, finding that defendant “had not established that appropriate witnesses would otherwise be unavailable.”  Ultimately the Tennessee Supreme Court found this was proper.  This shows how much discretion the trial court has over expert witness testimony.