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Do you know why pushing an expert's buttons at trial may serve you well but could backfire
on you? Would you like to learn the answer? Come join me as I share with you this great
information. 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 when I have
an opportunity to question the defense's expert it's usually going to be a doctor. And now
I have the opportunity if I want to press the doctor's buttons. Now what do I mean by
that? I mean to ask the doctor penetrating questions because I need to see how the doctor
reacts under pressure and (2) I need to get to the truth of the matter. I need to know
is this doctor coming in as a biased witness or is he coming in as a truly objective witness
who's giving the jury information about -- objectively -- what happened here and why. And that's
a really important distinction. Now there are some instances where I will ask the doctor
penetrating questions where he will be offended. He will not feel it's appropriate and they
may have nothing to do with the key issues in the case and may be what we call "collateral
issues." Maybe about other cases he's testified in. Maybe about the amount of money he earns
on a yearly basis coming in to testify on behalf of the defense. And those things, even
though they don't have a direct bearing on the case itself, they are known as collateral
issues. And I'm fully allowed to probe and determine how much he earns. I'm entitled
to find out what he's testified to in other cases. And this way, the jury will get a sense
of what's going on with this particular witness. Now this can backfire and let me tell you
how. I can create so much animosity towards the doctor that the jury will at some point
turn around to me and say hey why are you beating up the doctor? He's a well credentialed
expert, leave him alone. If that happens, now this whole thing can backfire on me and
hurt my client. You have to try and find the fine line and recognize where those boundaries
are because you never want to overstep it and get the jury to turn around and feel sympathetic
towards the doctor that I'm now trying to cross-examine. So why do I share this information
with you? Well I have a few minutes, I'm on vacation. I just wanted to get this great
information out to you so you have a better understanding of what goes on in the litigation
process during a trial in the state of New York involving an accident case, a medical
malpractice case and even a wrongful death case. And always you know, I recognize you
probably have questions of your own involving any one of those cases. Well if your matter
happened in New York and you do have legal questions, what I encourage you to do is pick
up the phone and call me. I can answer your legal questions. This is something that I
do every single day and I welcome your call. You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email
at Gerry@Oginski-law.com. Well that's it for today's quick video. I'm Gerry Oginski, here
in New York. Thanks so much for watching.