A medical malpractice lawsuit can threaten to derail your career, leaving your reputation tarnished. If you want to avoid that outcome, then you need to develop a strong defense strategy.
One key aspect of your defense is how you utilize and attack expert witness testimony. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how Alaska’s courts determine the admissibility of expert testimony in medical malpractice cases.
The Daubert standard in Alaska’s medical malpractice cases
When it comes to testimony that relies on scientific principles, a court will analyze several factors to determine if it’s reliable enough to be admissible. This test, known as the Daubert standard, includes analyzing the following:
- Whether the legal theory in question has gained general acceptance in the scientific community
- Whether the technique or scientific theory has been subjected to empirical testing
- The extent to which the technique or theory has been subjected to peer review
- Whether the error rate of the scientific theory or technique falls within an acceptable range
- The existence of any controls to address variances in the technique at hand
In preparing your expert to testify, then, you’ll want to pay close attention to these factors to see if you can buttress their testimony to make it credible, reliable, and thus admissible. When addressing the plaintiff’s expert, you’ll want to look for weaknesses in the application of these factors to their testimony so that you can hopefully minimize or even eliminate their testimony. Just keep in mind that testimony that’s based on the expert’s experience will be admissible.
Aggressively protect yourself in your medical malpractice case
There’s certainly a lot on the line in your medical malpractice case. Therefore, you can’t put forth a lackluster effort and hope to reach a positive outcome. Instead, you need to aggressively build the defense needed to fight back against the accusations levied against you. That’s why now is the time to start digging into your case to aggressively prepare yourself for the road ahead.