A Bronx Birth Injury Attorney Never Litigates Without Expert Witnesses

When presenting evidence of medical malpractice, not just in birth injury cases, expert witnesses can make a difference. Their professional training allows them to sift through the details and determine whether or not a doctor deviated from standard operating procedure. From a defendant’s perspective, expert witnesses can help support an argument.

Expert Witness

As more states require plaintiffs to file “expert affidavits” to support their claim, it’s only fitting for the demand in expert witnesses to increase following the recession. Aside from medicine, other sectors like oil and gas, water rights, property law, and IT have also begun tapping into expert witness services. Long story short: parties can’t go to court without their help.

If you’re forwarding your case to a Bronx birth injury attorney like Joseph Lichtenstein, you don’t have to worry about finding an expert witness. Part of the attorney’s job is to have one assess your case to see whether or not it holds water. In fact, the American Bar Association published several books on using expert witnesses.

Expert testimonies don’t guarantee a win, but it’s better than having someone in a non-official capacity stand in for you. They became instrumental in disproving a 20-year-old defense tactic that denied many injured children of just compensation: the “maternal forces of labor” defense. Although science had already disproven this earlier, the law put the final nail on its coffin.

Maternal forces of labor refers to the natural forces during a child’s delivery that resulted in bodily injuries, particularly Erb’s palsy. Such a supposition, however, is generally not accepted by the scientific community, which is a requirement for expert testimonies to be valid in court. It was a violation of the Frye standard, which is the admissibility standard in New York.

With a Bronx birth injury lawyer on your side, any birth injury case you forward will be handled with adequate support. Law firms like The Law Offices of Joseph M. Lichtenstein have enough experience to appreciate the importance of expert testimonies. Defendants will most likely have their own expert witnesses to support their stand, so it’s best to fight fire with fire.

(Source: “Expert Witness Use on the Rise,” The Suit Magazine, November 5, 2014)

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