{"id":1579,"date":"2007-07-10T16:07:13","date_gmt":"2007-07-10T16:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/the_use_of_medical_narrative_r\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:13:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:13:35","slug":"the-use-of-medical-narrative-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/the-use-of-medical-narrative-r\/","title":{"rendered":"The Use of Medical Narrative Reports in Serious Injury Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Until a few years ago, a plaintiff in a personal injury or serious injury lawsuit had to take the deposition testimony of all treating physicians in order to be able to introduce the deposition for a jury\u2019s consideration.  This is because testimony by a doctor without being subject to cross-examination would be considered hearsay and therefore not admissible.  To resolve the problem and expense associated with every single plaintiff\u2019s lawyer representing a personal injury claimant having to take medical testimony by way of depositions, and to dispense with the necessity of scheduling doctors\u2019 time to provide such a testimony, the law was changed to provide that medical narrative reports written by a doctor could be introduced into evidence even if the doctor were not subject to cross-examination.<\/p>\n<p>The operative statute is found at O.C.G.A. \u00a7 24-3-18.  This statute basically states that any report which sets forth in story form the doctor\u2019s assessment of the patient\u2019s history, diagnosis and treatment shall be admissible into evidence.  If a written notice is provided to the opposing party attaching the narrative and giving them ample opportunity that a plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, for example, wishes to utilize the report in support of his client\u2019s claims then, in that event, the defense has the right to take the deposition of the doctor at their expense, otherwise the report can come into evidence and be read to the jury without having to have the doctor\u2019s testimony sworn and deposed before a court reporter.<\/p>\n<p>The advantages of the medical narrative statute are obvious.  First, the plaintiff, who is already injured and may not have any income, no longer has to pay for the deposition of a doctor.  When dealing with a surgeon for example, an hourly deposition fee might be $500.00 per hour, not to mention the cost of the court reporter whose job it is to transcribe it.  If the deposition is videotaped so that it can be shown to the jury, yet another expense is involved.  In short, it is not uncommon for there to be a $1,500.00 expense in connection with taking a surgeon\u2019s deposition.  If the same surgeon, however, writes a narrative report and charges $250.00 for the time he takes to dictate and narrate the report, then in that event, the medical narrative is admissible and the expense of deposing the doctor would then shift to the defense if they wish to depose him further in connection with his report.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/the-use-of-medical-narrative-r\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading The Use of Medical Narrative Reports in Serious Injury Cases\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Until a few years ago, a plaintiff in a personal injury or serious injury lawsuit had to take the deposition testimony of all treating physicians in order to be able to introduce the deposition for a jury\u2019s consideration. This is because testimony by a doctor without being subject to cross-examination would be considered hearsay and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-1579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury-wrongful-death","tag-personal-injury"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Use of Medical Narrative Reports in Serious Injury Cases &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; July 10, 2007<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Until a few years ago, a plaintiff in a personal injury or serious injury lawsuit had to take the deposition testimony of all treating physicians in order &#8212; July 10, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/the-use-of-medical-narrative-r\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Use of Medical Narrative Reports in Serious Injury Cases &#8212; 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