Ask a Medical Malpractice (Defense) Lawyer

[TheRealJoeFish]

So being on the medical side of things did you need to learn things that a doctor would while in school or do you get to hear enough in the cases that you are starting to learn medical things?

I've always been very interested in medicine and even back in grade school would sort of seek out anatomical information (and no, that's not a porn joke, although now that I think about it...)  So, I'd say I've always had a pretty good understanding of how medicine and medical care works (I'm the first lawyer in my family, but I have a lot of doctors and nurses in my extended family (uncle, grandparents, cousins)).  I never had any formal training in human biology or medicine, but I've got what I'd call a particularly deep layman's understanding of body systems and disease and such.  My interest in that is part of the reason why I thought this field was so appealing to me.  Having any sort of medical knowledge was never a prerequisite, but it has helped me be more efficient in my work right off the bat (because I don't need to spend much time looking up what things are or their significance or what different drugs or procedures are used for and whatnot).  I have a very STEMmy background, which helps me go through medical records and technical documents very quickly (a lot of attorneys are hopelessly lost at first trying to read scientific documents).

Since starting here (and even before this job, while clerking with the judge for two years and seeing a medmal trial every few months), I've learned a whole ton about all sorts of things.  In particular, it's one thing to know about some kind of disease or problem and another to know the details of how that issue is dealt with by medical professionals; I'd often have a pretty clear idea of the former but no clue about the latter.

In this field, you see the very experienced attorneys demonstrate medical knowledge and judgment better than some doctors.  It's not unheard of for an attorney, viewing a medical chart with an x-ray or something, to notice a problem that wasn't picked up and tell the dude "yo, you should get to a doctor - not for the broken rib this case is about, but for this little dot down here which might be lung cancer."  There are a few attorneys that people say they'd go to for a second opinion any day, and they say this only somewhat jokingly.  I aspire to be like that some day .  In particular, the quality of lawyering in the medical malpractice field is quite high, because there's a lot of money involved and the technical aspects serve as a soft barrier to entry that sort of selects for the people who are really interested in the medical side or otherwise have a knack for it.