Mississippi board approves expert witness regulations

Physicians who give false testimony could lose their medical licenses.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. June 19, 2006.

Mississippi's medical board has adopted standards to regulate physicians who testify as expert witnesses, the latest step in a trend by states and medical organizations to make doctors more accountable for what they say as medical experts in courtrooms.

Violators who have Mississippi medical licenses could lose their licenses or pay up to $10,000 for the board to investigate them. Doctors from other states who give false testimony in Mississippi could be prohibited by court injunction from giving further testimony or have their state boards notified.

"All these regulations do is require the medical expert to follow the law and be honest and be ethical," said Philip Merideth, MD, a lawyer and vice president of Mississippi's Board of Medical Licensure. "This is about protecting the public. This is not about going after plaintiffs' experts."

In recent years, medical societies and other organizations have pushed for greater scrutiny of physicians who provide expert witness testimony. American Medical Association policy states that testimony a physician gives as an expert witness is considered the practice of medicine.

The Association encourages state medical societies to work with licensing boards to develop effective disciplinary measures for physicians who provide fraudulent testimony.

"We believe [providing expert testimony] is the practice of medicine, and it follows that there should be supervision by state medical boards," said Cecil B. Wilson, MD, new chair of the AMA's Board of Trustees.