Medical Legal Report Writing Workshop
August 15, 2007
Falmouth, MA
Sea Crest Oceanfront Resort
www.seacrest-resort.com
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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.
Medical-Legal 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. Ample time will be set aside for
questions and answers.
Learning Objectives:
� 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 to retaining counsel and
insurers
Here's what your colleagues have to say!
"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"
Distinguished Faculty
Nadine Nasser Donovan, Esq.,
is a former trial
lawyer with extensive litigation experience. She is currently of
counsel to the Boston-based firm of Martin, Magnuson, McCarthy &
Kenney. Her practice area includes the defense of medical
professionals in medical malpractice actions and before medical
licensing boards. In addition, Ms. Donovan is a Legal Writing
Instructor at Boston University School of Law. She previously
practiced litigation in New York City, first as a prosecutor in
Queens, and then as counsel for the City of New York. Ms. Donovan
received her J.D. cum laude from Boston College Law School.
She graduated from Fordham University summa cum laude with a
B.A. in French Literature.
Tuition
Tuition is
$495. Tuition includes a continental breakfast, lunch with faculty
and a detailed conference manual.
Click here for registration information.
Continuing Education Information
Click here for Continuing Education Information.
Schedule
- Wednesday, August 15, 2007
8:00-8:30Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:00Introduction
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
9:00-9:30Legal
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
9:30-10:00Formatting
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
10:00-10:30Medical
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
10:30-10:45BREAK AND
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY
10:45-11:15Qualifications
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
11:15-11:45Properly
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
11:45-12:00Catching
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
12:00-1:00LUNCH PROVIDED
WITH FACULTY
1:00-2:45Drafting 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
2:45-3:00BREAK AND
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY
3:00-4:15Defending 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
4:15-5:00Takeaways,
Conclusion and Evaluation
The faculty will answer any and all outstanding questions. The
faculty and attendees will then work together to develop a
"bullet-point" list of the most important concepts, techniques and
action steps learned in this workshop. Questions and Answers.