Victims Of New York Medical Malpractice Lawsuits And Independent Medical Examinations–Well, More Like Defense Medical Examinations

An IME, or independent medical examination, is common in most personal injury lawsuits. In fact, the defendant has a right to have a doctor that the defendant designates to physically examine the plaintiff. The defendant ends up paying that doctor to perform the examination and gets the report first. The defendant can also speak with the doctor, whereas the plaintiff could attempt to speak with the IME doctor but likely will not be able to.

This is not truly an “independent” medical examination. This is why I call them “DMEs,” or defense medical examinations.

These are simply not fair—how could they be?! The only thing independent about these is the defendant’s doctor usually stands alone from all the other treatment providers. This can seriously hurt or undermine a plaintiff’s case when the jury hears from this outsiders.

However, there are ways to attack a DME’s report and examination.

First, the DME doctor is only examining the victim of medical malpractice once, and usually in about 30 minutes or less. How can this POSSIBLY be enough time to evaluate a patient? The medical malpractice case could have been going on for years, with many of the treating physicians caring for plaintiff for several years and examining plaintiff several times. The credibility of the treating physicians should always be significantly stronger than the DME doctor.

Second, most times a DME doctor will not get all of the treatment reports. This is particularly true of the radiology and imaging photographs or slides. Most DME doctors will end up getting just the radiology reports as opposed to the actual images. Then the DME doctors will come to different findings based on the radiology report, even though the DME doctor did not review the actual images. This also makes NO SENSE! How can the opinion differ if they are based on the same radiology reports, and how can the DME doctor come to any competent opinion without review tine actual images?!

The answer is simple; the DME doctor cannot do that. And you need a New York medical malpractice attorney who will protect your rights from these unfair DMEs.

But what do you think? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com. You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.