Good litigators know that gaining facility with the subject matter is crucial to presenting a good case. For counsel who work in the construction realm, that means understanding engineering and contracting issues; for products liability counsel it means understanding the mechanism of the product in question, how it works (or does not). For medical liability lawyers, a meaningful facility with the subject matter requires a working knowledge of the clinical, operational and administrative aspects of the medical care at issue for each case. While this may sound pedestrian and axiomatic, it is a critical — and frequently overlooked — part of representation in medical liability cases.
Although attorneys do not need to have formal clinical training or a personal interest in medicine to succeed at this undertaking, there must be a commitment to learning fairly complex issues. Where to begin? Create an arsenal of basic texts and reference materials including, at a minimum: a medical dictionary (the better ones are Dorland’s or Stedman’s), a medical encyclopedia (e.g., the Merck Manual), an anatomy book (Gray’s or another with clear illustrations), and access to medical journals — available at medical libraries as well as online.
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