San Francisco Truck Accident Attorney: Dolan Law’s Legal Advocacy
The medical chart or illustration is then offered into evidence as an aid to a fuller understanding of the injuries involved.
Research is required in the various jurisdictions for authorities supporting the use of medical charts, anatomical drawings, transparencies, surgical hardware, etc. There are many such authorities. Such demonstrative evidence, however, should be reserved for use in major trauma cases, and not to illustrative trivial injuries. It is important, of course, that the doctor be prepared for these preliminary substantial questions by a discussion prior to trial.
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly publication,
with a subscription cost of $15.00 per year, and many alert trial lawyers of America are subscribers to the Journal. It is invaluable for leads to new concepts of medicine and to “round out” the medical knowledge of the attorney. Index Medicus, a publication of the United States Government Printing Office, is available for $20.00 per year (a monthly publication), and is a tremendous source of information as to the writings of the various doctors in the medical journals (foreign and domestic). The A. N. Marquis Company, who publish Who’s Who In America, also publish the Directory of Medical Specialties. This directory is invaluable in tracing the qualifications and the backgrounds of the medical witnesses.
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Many lawyers wheel into the courtroom a library cart loaded with medical books and attempt to confront the doctor-witness with selected quotations from the various books taken from the cart. This is a technique frequently seen in courtrooms and generally results in wasted effort. Don’t try to come into the courtroom with a library cart loaded with medical books and confront the doctor with a score of them one after the other, asking, “Do you agree with Wechsler at page 982?” “Do you agree with this, and do you agree with that?” Most of these doctors are becoming courtroom wise and alert to this technique. One doctor, now deceased, used to have a very neat way of getting rid of that cart fast. He would see a lawyer coming in with a cart full of medical articles, and he would,
“Say, ‘Young man,’ it was always ‘young man’ with him. It was never anything else but ‘young man’ with him. ‘Young man, there is only one book that I consider an authority, and that book is the Bible. If you have the Bible on that cart, I will recognize that book as an authority.'”
“What are you going to do in cross-examining a man that knocks you out of the box that way before you even get started? He used to do it in another manner by saying, ‘All these books are fine, but I am the authority in this case. I examined the patient. These books can’t help me.'”
“Or, take the other kind of doctor. You ask him about exertion causing coronary occlusion, and you bring out Dr. Paul Dudley White’s book, and you go through all the motions. The doctor says he recognizes Dr. White as an authority. Who doesn’t? And he will say to you, before you get off the ground, ‘Well, that may be what he said in the third edition, but do you have the fourth edition with you?’ Well, you don’t happen to have the fourth edition, and you are done. Why get into the position of being ‘cooked’ before you even get started?”
“Here is a neater and more effective way of doing it. Go through the medical authorities, and whenever you find a particular sentence or paragraph that is useful, place it on a 3″ by 5” card with the book and page of the authority on one side and the desired quote on the other. Use the card with prefatory remarks couched in the following formula: ‘Doctor, is it not an established medical fact that…?‘ or, ‘Doctor, isn’t it medically true that…?'”
“It should be pointed out, however, as a caveat, that medical books are not admissible into evidence as proof of the facts stated therein, but may be used in most jurisdictions on cross-examination if the doctor acknowledges that the author is an authority on the subject. In this event, he may be confronted with passages which conflict with his previously expressed opinions. When so used, medical books would not be admitted into evidence, but only for the purpose of discrediting or weakening the expert’s testimony.”
Dolan Law: Your Trusted Truck Accident Lawyer in San Francisco
“It is also suggested that these worthwhile quotes be incorporated for future use in a loose-leaf notebook with tabs reading ‘Arthritis, Back and Disc, Brain, Cancer, Heart, Gall-Bladder, Kidney, Limbs, Medical Charts and the use of them, Multiple Sclerosis, Shoulder, Whiplash Injury, Traumatic Neuroses, X-rays, etc.’ These medical quotations should be committed to memory and used without reference to either the card or the loose-leaf notebook. If the doctor disagrees with the statement, then he can be confronted, in most jurisdictions, with the exact quotations from the book.”
“One of the most neglected fields of trial preparation is the adequate briefing of the medical features of the case for ready courtroom use. Very few lawyers take the time or painstaking care of handling this feature of the case properly. A properly prepared medical brief will contain the exact quotations from specific medical authorities to support the contentions, buttressed by medical and legal citations and quotations.”
“In briefing, utilize the references herein contained. Refer your inquiries for material to the Consulting Services of the W. F. Prior Company, Hagerstown, Maryland, and the National Library of Medicine, Washington, D.C., the latter comprising the greatest collection of medical literature in the world, exceeding one million titles.”
“This article cannot be all-inclusive of the many sources available to the energetic and painstaking trial lawyer for the proper preparation of the medical-legal problems involved in personal injury cases. It is hoped, however, that the suggestions herein made will point the way to a fuller realization that trying today’s personal injury lawsuit is a painstaking search in preparation of the medical facts as well as the legal principles involved.”
“Proper preparation of a personal injury case and proper presentation of the issues of damages, pain and suffering are absolute essentials of the success of a trial lawyer. The use of some of the media, bibliography, or materials herein suggested should prove rewarding instrumentalities for the effective development of a trauma case, as well as aids to successful advocacy in such cases.”
“The anatomy of a lawsuit today is truly the proper presentation.”
Recommended Bibliography:
– LOW BACK PAIN SYNDROME, by Rene Cailliet, M.D., published by F. A. Davis Company, Philadelphia, distributed by the Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y.
– OUR HUMAN BODY-ITS WONDERS AND ITS CARE, published by E. P. Dutton & Co., 201 Park Avenue, New York 3, N. Y.
– THE MANAGEMENT OF FRACTURES AND SOFT TISSUE INJURIES, published by W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia.
– HANDLING ACCIDENT CASES, by Albert Averbach, Volumes 1-6, published by Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Co., Rochester, New York.
– HANDLING AUTOMOBILE CASES, by Albert Averbach, Volumes 1-2, published by Lawers Co-Operative Publishing Co., Rochester, New York.
– TORT AND MEDICAL YEARBOOK, Co-Editors, Albert Averbach and Melvin M. Belli, Volumes 1-2, published by Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
– MODERN TRIALS, by Melvin M. Belli, published by Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
– HEAD INJURIES, by E. S. Gurdjian and J. E. Webster, published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1958, $14.00.
– ANATOMICAL STUDIES FOR PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, 11th Edition, published by S. H. Camp & Company, Jackson, Mich.
– THE ANATOMY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM-ITS DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION, by Stephen Walter Ranson and Sam Lillard Clark, 10th Edition, W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia.
– THE ACCIDENT SYNDROME, by Morris S. Schulzinger, Charles C. Thomas Co., Springfield, Illinois, 1956.
– ATLAS OF SURGICAL OPERATIONS, 3rd Edition, by Robert M. Zollinger and Elliott C. Cutler, The MacMillan Company, New York, $18.00.
– THE ANATOMY OF THE HEAD AND NECK, by Barry J. Anson, published by W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1956.
– THE STRESS OF LIFE, by Hans Selye, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, $5.95.
– LEGAL MEDICINE, edited by R. B. H. Gradwohl, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, Missouri, 1954.
– TRAUMATIC MEDICINE AND SURGERY FOR THE ATTORNEY, edited by Paul David Cantor, published by Butterworth Inc., Washington, D. C.
– THE CYCLOPEDIA OF MEDICINE, SURGERY, SPECIALTIES, F. A. Davis Company, Philadelphia.
– DIRECTORY OF MEDICAL SPECIALISTS, by A. N. Marquis Co., Marquis Publications Building, Chicago 11, Illinois.
– TEXTBOOK OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY, 5th Edition, by Catherine Parker Anthony, the C. V. Mosby Company, St. Louis, 1959.
– LEGAL ESSAYS OF THE PLAINTIFF’S ADVOCATE, Edited by Robert Klonsky, Central Book Company, Brooklyn 21, N. Y., 1961.
– THE RELATION BETWEEN INJURY AND DISEASE, by Jewett V. Reed and Charles P. Emerson, Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
– NERVES, BRAIN AND MAN, by John Grayson, published by Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1960, $5.00.
– THE THINKING BODY, by Mabel Elsworth Todd, published by Paul B. Hoeber Inc., New York.
– THE TEACHING OF BODY MECHANICS, by Ivalclare Sprow Howland, A. S. Barnes and Company, New York.
– THE MACHINERY OF THE BODY, by Anton J. Carlson and Victor Johnson, 3rd Edition, published by The University of Chicago Press.