Greedy Trial Lawyer
Score One For Plaintiffs' Medical Experts
Category: In Your Face
A North Carolina Court has thrown out the disciplinary action of the State's Medical Board against a plaintiff's expert witness.
The surest way to reduce the pool of potential plaintiffs' experts is to impose disciplinary actions whenever one has the fortitude to call it like he sees it in the courtroom. I do not know Dr. Lustgarten, but I know his discipline was not because he acted unprofessionally (as claimed by the Medical Board). He dared to criticize the care of a North Carolina physician.
Court voids doctor's punishment
Testimony angered oversight boardA Florida brain surgeon was vindicated by the state Court of Appeals when it ruled Tuesday that he was wrongly disciplined for his testimony in a medical malpractice case.
The case attracted attention from medical groups, who saw Dr. Gary Lustgarten as a "hired gun" brought in to back a frivolous lawsuit. It also drew notice from lawyers, who saw him as the scapegoat of doctors seeking to punish anyone who questioned the competence of their colleagues.
In 2002, the N.C. Medical Board stripped Lustgarten, a neurosurgeon who practices in Miami, of the right to practice in North Carolina after he testified in court that a Fayetteville brain surgeon might have omitted incriminating details from his operative notes after a patient died. Lustgarten said the North Carolina doctors provided substandard care.
The medical board said Lustgarten behaved unprofessionally and voted to revoke his license. Lustgarten appealed the decision to a Wake County Superior Court judge. The judge threw out part but not all of the board's punishment, and Lustgarten pressed his case to the state Court of Appeals.
In a unanimous ruling, the higher court said the board was wrong to assert that Lustgarten made a "groundless accusation" during testimony against the North Carolina doctor. Instead, the appeals court said, Lustgarten stated a medical basis for his comments. Further, the opinion states, Lustgarten did not testify that the operative notes might have been softened to conceal negligence "until pressed to do so on cross-examination."
Thomas Mansfield, the N.C. Medical Board's chief prosecutor, said the board remains convinced it had ample reason to discipline Lustgarten. He said the board's 12 members, eight of whom are doctors, are best able to interpret medical testimony and determine whether it is based on sound medical knowledge and reasoning.
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