Jim and Carrie Carroll at Carroll and Carroll, P.C. represent the injured people of Pennsylvania and New York in Bradford, Sullivan, Tioga, Susquehanna, and Chemung counties in personal injury, premises liability, slip and fall, automobile accident and workers’ compensation cases Jim and Carrie Carroll at Carroll and Carroll, P.C. represent the injured people of Pennsylvania and New York in Bradford, Sullivan, Tioga, Susquehanna, and Chemung counties in personal injury, premises liability, slip and fall, automobile accident and workers’ compensation cases
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Personal Injury

    6/2/2008
    James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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    When a medical expert testifies "within a reasonable degree of medical certainty"...what does that really mean?

    In the case of Griffin v University of Pittsburgh, which is a May 19, 2008, Superior Court case, the court held that when a physician testifies that there was a 51-49% probability that the negligent act caused the injury, this was legally insufficient to offer an opinion to a “reasonable degree of medical certainty.” Most medical experts spit out the phrase “to a reasonable degree of medical certainty” without actually defining its meaning or actually knowing what it truly means.  It does not mean "maybe" or "probably" or "might be" or any of those equivocal phrases.  However, it DOES not mean 100 % assurances.  The court doesn't actually give a specific percentage, but it has to be more than in this case.  Although I have no support for this, if a medical expert said they were more than 85% certain, I'd wager lunch that this would be enough for most appellate courts. 

    Therefore, if you have a defense doctor who is a little less sure of the opinion he/she is offering, but also uses the magic language ask him/her to put a percentage on it. You might get lucky! The doctor could give some kind of split percentage as in this case and you can argue that based upon the Griffin case, the opinion is legally insufficient.

    I've also posted this at the Pa Work Injury Law blog here.
    Labels: expert testimony IME litigation strategy


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