West Palm Beach Car accident Deposition Outline for Defense Doctor/Independent Medical Exam Doctor 1-800-74-TRIAL
1. Background
a. Where did you attend college and medical school?
b. Are you board certified? If so, in what areas are you board certified and during what period of time did you obtain certification?
c. What is your specialty?
d. [If appropriate] How many surgical procedures have you performed on [particular area of the body] during the past five years?
e. Approximately how many independent medical examinations do you perform in a single year?
f. How many independent medical examinations have you performed during the past year?
g. Do you perform examinations for both plaintiffs and defendants? If so, what is the approximate percentage of each?
h. Approximately how many cases have you performed independent medical examinations for this particular carrier and/or defense attorney during the past five years. Please name the other insurance carriers for whom you perform more than five examinations a year.

2. Financial
a. How much did you charge the carrier or defense attorney for the independent medical examination and report performed on this particular plaintiff.
b. On what basis do you charge? [Determine whether it is hourly, flat fee, etc.]
c. Do you charge for review of the file and preparation for the examination? If so, how much did you charge the carrier?
d. How much time did you spend preparing for today's deposition?
e. Do you have any idea how much you will be charging for this deposition? [If the deposition has been prepaid and the charge was fairly significant, determine the basis for the charge.]
f. How do you base your charges for independent medical examinations versus depositions or in court testimony? [Note: Hopefully you will find out that the plaintiff is paying more than the defendant for both testimony and preparation.]
g. Do you know how much compensation you have received from this particular insurance carrier during the past five years? If so, please indicate the approximate amount.

3. The examination
a. How much time did you spend with the plaintiff during this examination? [Note: you may find that the doctor's testimony and your client's recollection may differ. Remember the instructions in §458.4.1 in which I advised that your client keep an accurate record as to when the examination began and the exact time it ended. A difference of a few minutes will not matter but one and one-¬half hours as opposed to one half hour will certainly make a difference to the jury.]
b. How much responsibility in the independent medical examination is delegated to office staff such as nurses, physician's assistants, or secretaries? How is this delegation decided?
c. Please indicate what your examination consisted of [Note: In one case, our client was examined by a defense doctor regarding a neck injury. During the examination, she inquired as to whether she should remove her turtleneck sweater. The doctor stated it was not necessary and she thought it was odd. Her own treating physician testified later that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to get an accurate understanding of a neck injury without removing the turtleneck. The doctor substantiated his testimony by saying that such areas as range of motion, spasm, tenderness, and other factors could not be properly considered unless the turtleneck was removed. This testi¬mony was extremely damaging to the independent medical doctor.]
d. Did the client cooperate completely during the examination?
e. How long did you spend on the history of this particular incident?
f. Did you consult whatsoever with either the treating physician or any of the plaintiff's other physi¬cians in this case?

4. The report itself
a. Who wrote the report?
b. How long after the appointment was the report dictated? [If the report was dictated the same day, then the report has more accuracy, but if it was dictated several days after the examination, the doc¬tor's memory and, therefore, accuracy may be diminished.]
c. Why does your report indicate [item] on page 3 but on page 5 you state that [inconsistency].
d. The plaintiff's treating physician, Dr. Jones, states that there is 25% permanent impairment and yet you state that the impairment is 5% at most. Can you explain the difference?
e. Your report is similar to a report I have in my possession regarding another exam you performed. (Show report with name whited out for confidentiality reasons). Can you explain why you used identical language, to the letter, in both reports?
f. Did you use any information contained in any of the other medical records to write your report in this case? [Note: You want to establish that the doctor used other reports and records and yet came up with an inconsistent finding.]