Personal Injury Law

Missouri Personal Injury Trial Evidence: Its what you can prove that matters

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

"It not what you know, but what you can prove" - Denzel Washington, Training Day

Missouri injury lawyers need to know the ins and outs of the Missouri rules of evidence, particularly to avoid situations allowing critical evidence for the the injured victim to be excluded at trial and critical evidence against the Plaintiff to be included.

One such case that did not go well for the Plaintiff is the Missouri medical malpractice lawsuit of Beaty v. St. Luke?s Hosp., 298 S.W.3d 554 (Mo.App. W.D. 2009), the Appellate court affirmed the trial court limiting the Plaintiff's medical expert witness' testimony to exclude some of his opinions reached, after an examination of the victim just 24 hours prior to his testimony.

Also, this trial court allowed one of the plaintiff?s treating physicians to have an ex parte communication (meaning only contact with one party) with defense counsel. Defense did not request any medical documents that required HIPPA compliance, and only asked him to ?review some data?. Plaintiff?s counsel did not follow up with this videotaped deposition, nor did they inquire as to the nature of the details of the deposition. Defendant did disclose their intention of calling the treating physician as a non-retained expert under Rule 56.01(b)(5). As such, the Plaintiff?s argument for requesting the deposition to be excluded at trial was untenable.

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on December 03, 2010 (boomark / email).