Top court: In medical liability cases, expert testimony is a must
A recent Supreme Court of Kentucky decision makes clear that juries must hear from—and base decisions on testimony from—medical experts in medical malpractice cases involving complex conditions such as strokes instead of relying on "common knowledge" when rendering decisions.
The high court's opinion helps ensure physicians will be less likely to face jury prejudice or practice defensive medicine to protect themselves from spurious lawsuits. Those were two concerns the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies, along with the Kentucky Medical Association, expressed to the court in a joint amicus brief (PDF) filed in the case (PDF), Lewis v. Shackelford/Ashland Hospital v. Lewis.
The worry that the legal landscape for physicians could change in Kentucky arose after an appellate court said a patient, David Shackelford, could go forward with a lawsuit against a physician and a hospital that alleged the man would have suffered less harm from a stroke had it been detected earlier. The claim was allowed even though no experts testified that the physician or hospital took any action—or failed to take any action—that caused the patient harm.
The appellate court reversed the trial-court decision and ruled the claim could go forward because it is "common knowledge" that promptly identifying stroke and treating the condition is important. The AMA Litigation Center and the KMA warned the standard would be "a recipe for imposing liability for harm that physician did not cause and could not have prevented based on the accepted standards of care."
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