Medical-Legal Report Writing Workshop

Medical-Legal Report Writing Workshop

Conference

Medical-Legal Report Writing Workshop Schedule

Sea Crest Oceanfront Resort Faculty
Falmouth, Massachusetts Registration Info

Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Registration Form

PDF version of entire brochure

SEAK's Expert Witness Directory

Executive Summary

A physician's medical-legal report is one of the most important services provided to retaining counsel. A well-written report is immensely helpful to retaining counsel and may well lead to future referrals and the ability to charge premium fees. A poorly written report can and will be used to impeach the expert in the case at hand and future cases for years to come. Expert Report Writing Workshop is a lively, hands-on program that features numerous interactive writing exercises and mock trial demonstrations. It will teach you how to write more valuable and more defensible reports and how to avoid the most common pitfalls involved in expert report writing. Physicians will learn how to structure their medical-legal reports so as to be resistant to cross examination and will even be provided an opportunity to have an actual expert report of theirs critiqued by a colleague. Ample time will be set aside for questions and answers.

Learning Objectives

Physicians Attending Advanced Financial Strategies For Physicians Will Learn:

Dramatically improve your medical-legal report writing skills.
Avoid the most common pitfalls in drafting expert reports.
Understand the tactics attorneys use to attack an expert report and learn how to defend against each of these tactics.
Be a more valuable expert witness.

Here's what past attendees have to say about this Workshop:

"Well structured and great examples"
"Every bit as good as I had hoped for!"
"Extremely effective"
"Kept everything anchored to the main objective"
"Good information combined with and applied to practical experiences"
"Great job of pointing out weaknesses in the reports and line of questioning, nice educational strategy"
"[Mangraviti is] great, engaging, informative able to be a teacher and a tough lawyer"
"Awesome, I appreciate seeing [Mangraviti's] seamless transition between attorney and lecturer"

Faculty:

James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq, has trained hundreds of expert witnesses across the United States and Canada. He is a former trial lawyer with experience in defense and plaintiff personal injury law and insurance law. He currently serves as Vice President and General Counsel of SEAK, Inc. Mr. Mangraviti received his BA degree in mathematics summa cum laude from Boston College and his JD degree cum laude from Boston College Law School. His publications include the texts Writing and Defending Your IME Report: The Step-by-Step Guide with Models, SEAK Law School for Physicians, The Independent Medical Examination Report: A Step-by-Step Guide with Models, The Successful Physician Negotiator: How to Get What You Deserve, How to Excel During Cross-Examination: Techniques for Experts That Work, How to Excel During Depositions: Techniques for Experts That Work, and The Comprehensive Forensic Services Manual: The Essential Resources for All Experts.

Registration Information: The $395 tuition includes a valuable seminar reference manual,
continental breakfast and lunch with faculty, coffee breaks, and a dynamic learning experience.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

8:00-8:30	Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:00	Introduction: Physicians will learn when to write their expert report and more importantly when not to write an expert report. The law governing the discoverability and admissibility of medical-legal reports will be explained. The specific reasons why a well-written report is of crucial importance will be explained. Questions and Answers
9:00-9:30	Legal Requirements of Reports: Physicians will learn the legally mandated content requirements for Rule 26 Reports for cases in federal court and reports used to oppose or support motions for summary judgment (Rule 56 motions). Questions and Answers
9:30-10:00	Formatting: Physicians will learn the optimum ways to format an expert report and how this can assist them during cross-examination. The importance of proper formatting will be emphasized, with a specific discussion of cover pages, fonts, topic headings, paragraph breaks and lengths, spacing, and page numbering. A mock trial demonstration will emphasize the importance of proper formatting. Model medical-legal reports with superior formatting will be provided. Questions and Answers
10:00-10:30	Medical Records and Authority/Research Reviewed: Through a combination of didactic presentations, interactive writing exercises, and mock trial demonstrations, physicians will learn the best way to document in a medical-legal report the medical records and research upon which the physician's opinion was based and the importance of doing this in a proper manner. What should and should not be included will be discussed. Questions and Answers
10:30-10:45	Break (Networking Opportunity)
10:45-11:15	Qualifications of the Physician: The physician's stating of his own qualifications in a medical-legal report is an area where avoidable mistakes with severe consequences are all too often made. Through didactic presentations, interactive writing exercises and a mock trial demonstration, physicians will learn the importance of accurately and objectively stating one's qualifications and the common errors that physicians often make in this area. Questions and Answers
11:15-11:45	Properly Expressing Your Opinion: The purpose of a medical-legal report is the expression of the physician's opinion. This opinion should be expressed in a clear, confident and supportable manner. Through didactic presentations, interactive writing exercises and a mock trial demonstration, physicians will learn how to properly express an opinion and the reasoning for that opinion in a medical-legal report and the common pitfalls to avoid in this area. Questions and Answers
11:45-12:00	Catching Mistakes Before They Catch You: Through didactic presentations and a mock trial demonstration, physicians will learn the importance of proofreading their medical-legal reports and how to catch and correct the most commonly made errors in medical-legal reports. Questions and Answers
12:00-1:00	Lunch (Provided With Faculty)
1:00-2:45	Drafting a Powerful, Defensible Report: Through didactic presentations, interactive writing exercises and a mock trial demonstration, physicians will learn 20 proven techniques to make their medical-legal reports more powerful, persuasive, and defensible. Specific techniques explained will include: avoidance of absolute words, staying within the expert's true area of expertise, red flag words to avoid in expert reports, common damaging superfluous language that should not appear in medical-legal reports, the avoidance of hedge words and over a dozen more specific techniques. Questions and Answers
2:45-3:00	Break (Networking Opportunity)
3:00-4:00	Defending Your Report During Cross Examination: Through didactic presentations and mock trial demonstrations, physicians will learn the 25 most effective tactics counsel uses to attack a physician through his report and, more importantly, specific advice on how to defend against each and every one of these tactics. Questions and Answers
4:00-5:00	Report Critiques (Optional): Physicians will have the opportunity to have an actual expert report of theirs critiqued by a physician. Physicians who wish to participate in this part of the program should bring one of their shorter reports with them to the conference.