Personal Injury Law

Use of Expert Witnesses by Missouri Injury Attorneys to successfully pursue Missouri Injury Claims and Lawsuits

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

Just about every personal injury case in Missouri, Illinois, or anywhere else, requires the use of experts. Most commonly, experts in a Missouri car accident injury claim are the treating health care providers. From the emergency room and ER doctors, to the physical therapists and the physicians and surgeons that have treated the personal injury victim. A good St Louis personal injury lawyer knows how to use these treating providers to maximize their injured client's recovery.

In many other cases not only are the treating heath care providers necessary, but also experts to prove liability are required to litigate a successful personal injury case in Missouri. They can be engineers for Missouri product liability injury lawsuits, surgeons and medical doctors for Missouri medical malpractice claims (in fact expert affidavits are required in Missouri med mal lawsuits just to file one - See Certificate of Merit to File Missouri Medical Malpractice Case) , toxicologists if you have a lawyer to sue a Missouri drunk driver and need an expert to help prove the negligent driver was drunk, assuming this was not already established by the police.

Proper use of experts in personal injury depositions or injury trials requires knowledge of how to use that expert to best benefit the injured party. For example, in a Missouri personal injury case evidence must be submitted in proper form for the jury to be able to rely on it, however, experts are allowed to rely on documents, books, or other sources in coming up with and verifying their opinion even though that document or source is not admissible as evidence.

"Evidence an expert relies on in forming his or her opinion need not be independently admissible."

"Expert can rely on hearsay information provided that those sources are not offered as independent substantive evidence, but rather serve only as a background for expert's opinion. V.A.M.S. § 490.065."

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).