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Your case is coming up for trial and your treating doctor refuses to come in and testify
on your behalf. What do you do? Can you subpoena that doctor into court and will he help you
if you do? Would you like to learn the answer? Come join me, I’ll tell you. Hi. I’m Gerry
Oginski. I’m a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing
law here in the state of New York. Now imagine the scenario. Your case is coming up for trial,
you want your treating doctor to come in and testify to explain to the jury exactly what
the doctor did for you, what your injuries were, and what happened to you over the course
of time in terms of your cooperation and the treatment that he provided. The problem is
that your treating doctor doesn’t want to take the time out of his busy schedule to
come in and testify to the jury, to explain to them exactly what occurred. Now, what do
you do in that instance? Well, one of two things. One, you can actually serve a subpoena
on your treating doctor that compels the doctor to come into court and now they have no choice.
And when you do that, let me ask you a question. Do you think the doctor is going to feel good
about coming in and testifying? Or do you think the doctor is going to be miserable?
He’s going to be very antagonistic and he’s not going to be very happy and he gets on
the witness stand knowing that he’s now going to be wasting his entire day coming
into court doing exactly the thing he did not want to do. Do you really think it’s
going to help your case? Well, I will tell you in some instances we have no choice but
to subpoena the doctor who treated you. Why is that? Because we need that testimony to
give to the jury, to explain to the jury exactly what was done and why. Many times the treating
doctor is key to letting the jury know exactly what happened to you, what they did for you,
what treatment you received, and what problems you have now as a result of the carelessness
and the wrongdoing? So what happens now in the event that we can’t subpoena the doctor
and the doctor refuses to come in? In that instance, we have no choice but to hire a
medical experts to then review the medical records and then explain to the jury exactly
what it was that occurred. But the reality is, if you have to wind up subpoenaing – compelling
the doctor to now come into court – and now forcing them to come take time out of
their busy day and explain to the jury what occurred, I will tell you for the most part
those doctors are not going to be very happy. And you try to explain to the jury that this
doctor was forced to come in here and we had to subpoena the doctor because he or she refused
to come in. So why do I even tell you about this? I tell you about this to give you an
insight and an understanding about some of the things that can go on during the course
of trial. Chances are you have questions and concerns about your particular matter. Well,
if your matter happened here in the state of New York what I encourage you to do and
you have legal questions, pick up the phone and call me. I answer legal questions like
yours every single day. You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com.
I’m Gerry Oginski, here in New York. Thanks so much for watching.