Our Services

  • The Attorney speaks “legalese”, and the expert or treating physician or other healthcare provider speaks “medicalese”. The two languages are different and not everyone is fluent in both. Our team is fluent in both languages, and we can help to prepare an attorney for the deposition of a treating or expert healthcare provider. Professional athletes still need coaches, and attorneys working on cases with a medical component could benefit from some knowledgeable medical guidance.

    “A FISH ONLY GETS CAUGHT WHEN IT OPENS ITS MOUTH” Anon

  • The deponent expert usually carries a load of scientific knowledge, but many experts think they know more law than they do. Day-before depo prep with the attorney helps the expert but is often inadequate. Our physician-attorney and physician-paralegals can smooth the process and improve the outcome.

    “A FISH ONLY GETS CAUGHT WHEN IT OPENS ITS MOUTH” Anon

  • The deponent treating physician commonly feels “safe” in a deposition, but the fallout from Florida HB 837 includes the fact that services must be “medically necessary” in order to be considered as boardable medical damages. Just because a service is recommended does not make it necessary. Treating physicians need to be prepared for that line of questioning from either plaintiff or defense.

    “A FISH ONLY GETS CAUGHT WHEN IT OPENS ITS MOUTH” Anon

  • Under the proper arrangements, and with the proper permissions, our MD/ESQ can participate in depositions, providing on-the-spot additions or course corrections to assist the primary depositioner.

    “A FISH ONLY GETS CAUGHT WHEN IT OPENS ITS MOUTH” Anon

Deposition Preparation of:

  • Our team includes physician Life Care Planners who are certified and who do their own work, rather than working for an agency which spoon-feeds pre-prepared plans to the Physician Life Care Planner for what is essentially a countersignature. Because we do our own work, we are also experts at analyzing Life Care Plans prepared by others. Recent case law in Florida prohibits Life Care Planners designated only as Life Care Planners from including items in the Plan based on the Planners’ experience or recommendations. Many Plans have been rendered non-compliant, and those plans are either in need of material corrections or are subject to being stricken, in whole or in part. There are critical flaws in some of the fee schedules used by Life Care Planners- what are they, and do they apply in the case instant?

  • We have an affiliate Accident Reconstructionist who is a Professional Engineer (PE) with a PhD in Human Factors and over 40 years of testimonial experience. He specializes in debunking junk science on both sides of the Bar.

  • Our medical experts, in conjunction with the accident reconstruction answer the questions:

    1. Did the incident as documented cause the injuries as documented?

    2. Are the symptoms of findings documented consistent with the injuries?

    3. Was the care provided appropriate for the documented injuries?

    4. Was the care provided “medically necessary” and not “experimental and investigational”?

  • The reconstruction services we provide help to address the problem of “causation by attribution”, where the treating provider asserts causation due to a temporal relationship between an event and a complaint. The direct application of legitimate science can help each side, plaintiff and defense, better understand the situation and make more informed decisions about how to manage the case.

  • Junk science is plentiful on both sides of the bar, whether it is “you cannot have been hurt in this event” or “there is permanent injury in the absence of objective findings”. Typically, the dispute is resolved by “dueling experts” at trial or via depositions, but those resources may not be available immediately during Alternative Dispute Resolutions. We can provide “on-the-fly” resources to Counsel during ADRs to assist with the determination of the accuracy of an expert’s assertion.

  • All experts are not created equal, and sometimes there is a question about whether a formal rebuttal is indicated as a part of the legal strategy. Although a formal rebuttal may not be admissible when not coming from the original expert, the Attorney still may need information that an outside rebuttal may provide. Flaws in the opposing expert’s premise and methodology may be able to be identified and the information may benefit the attorney.

  • If there is any medical aspect to the case, we can more efficiently and more accurately evaluate the case than a typical Legal Nurse Consultant and at competitive rates. A nurse without independent practice privileges cannot attest to the “medical necessity” of a medical service. Medical Diagnoses are included in ICD-10, but Nursing Diagnoses are not. Nurses advising attorneys about medical services are routinely working outside their scope of practice and out of their area of expertise.

  • All too often, interrogatories are prepared and completed prior to the involvement in the case of real medical professionals. Knowing what questions to ask from a medical standpoint facilitates discovery and creates more efficient case management. Every injury case has a medical component, and just as it takes legal expertise to identify the legal aspects of the case, it takes medical expertise to evaluate the medical aspects of a case. The presumption of equivalence- that all healthcare providers are equal in their knowledge and capabilities- is simply not true and is a fallacy. Going into battle with a deficient weapon may result in an undesired outcome.

  • For less obvious causes of action for professional liability or the defenses to such claims. Often, potential causes of action are missed because of an incomplete understanding of the duties owed to a patient by various providers. Alternatively, often defenses to causes of action are missed due to the provision of incomplete records from providers. Unless one knows what services are provided by whom and where the repositories for those records are, one cannot assess the completeness of the records submitted in response to a subpoena duces tecum. For example, retention of intraoperative images is required, but such images are rarely produced, in part because fluoroscopic or ultrasound images are not specifically requested. The records may reside on a hard drive in the operating room or in the radiology department, or off-site, or elsewhere, but they are not routinely included in the patient chart. When you do not know what you do not know, it is difficult to make a proper request for records from the proper party.

  • We have a vast network of personal and professional contacts that have been garnered during our collective experiences in healthcare, spanning over 100 years. We can vet an expert at minimal expense, if any, and educate the expert on the pertinent aspects of the case with greater personal input than picking from a directory or a colleague’s recommendation based on limited experience.

  • Projected costs and/or charges for healthcare services can readily be compiled to provide an estimate of Medical Damages, allowing a Lawyer to make informed decisions about the case.

  • Were the billed services provided? Are the charges accurate? Are the fees charged legitimate? With the experience that comes from owning an RCM company that billed ~$800M/year in medical services, we have knowledge and resources that are not commonly available. Are the charges “usual and customary (we will leave “reasonable” to another day)”? Are the Fee Schedules consistent from payor to payor?

  • When a third party purchases an account receivable, were all the services actually provided and are the fees representative of the market? Were standard billing and coding rules followed? Have services been unbundled to artificially increase the billed amounts? Did the purchaser of the account get what was paid for? We have the experience and expertise to provide the answers to these and similar questions.

  • Did all the health care providers follow the same guidelines when preparing their bills for submissions? Is there a potential imbalance in the distribution of funds due to a n entity’s using a different fee schedule or not following Correct Coding Initiatives? Does the distributing attorney have the knowledge it takes to argue medical billing propriety with a healthcare provider who is holding up the distribution process? We have the ability to interface with healthcare providers around the time of disbursement and stem discord.