The opportunity to dispute merit in medical malpractice defense provides an important tool for the representation of your client. The liberal notice pleading and lenient approach to the content of bills of particulars which prevail in New York practice are such that ill-developed and speculative claims are almost impossible to weed out before the conclusion of discovery. The inefficiency of this approach frequently requires years of discovery within the poorly articulated and practically limitless bounds of the pleadings, before the court has the ability to address the sufficiency of the allegations. When the time arrives, the defense has to be ready.